Ivan Stewart was a prominent professional off-road racer, serving as the game's celebrity endorser and the basis for the white player-controlled truck in the original arcade cabinet. The game was designed and managed by John Morgan, who also served as lead programmer and initial track designer, and who wrote ray-tracing software to generate all the vehicle artwork. The Leland Corporation was subsequently acquired by WMS Industries in 1994.
Up to three players (four in the NES version via the NES Satellite or NES Four Score accessory) race against each other or computer opponents on top-down indoor off-road truck tracks that increase in difficulty. Eight tracks appear in the base game (twelve in the Master System version, sixteen in the SNES version), with 99 total races on most versions. Finishing first earns points to advance in the championship and money used to purchase truck upgrades or additional nitro boosts. Continues reset the player's money to zero in home versions, whereas the arcade version allows money to be replenished. The vehicle-upgrade system conceived by Morgan became an influential template for subsequent racing games.
The CPU-controlled drivers in the original arcade version were named after development team members: "Madman" Sam Powell (music composer), "Hurricane" Earl Stratton (assistant programmer), and "Jammin'" John Morgan (designer and lead programmer). The Track Pak expansion added "Steamin'" Steve High (graphics) and "Hot Rod" John Rowe (company ownership), a convention that eliminated the need for external licensing.
The NES version retains the Ivan Stewart branding and Toyota logo on cartridge art. The SNES version features Toyota prominently in track signage and pre-race music inspired by a Toyota marketing jingle of the era, but replaces Stewart with the late Mickey Thompson in the grey truck, reportedly without approval from the Thompson family. Several home console ports dropped the Stewart licence entirely and released as plain Super Off Road.
A Track Pak add-on board for arcade cabinets, released in 1989, added eight tracks — Shortcut, Cutoff Pass, Pig Bog, Rio Trio, Leapin' Lizards, Redoubt About, Boulder Hill, and Volcano Valley — and introduced the option to race with a dune buggy instead of a truck.
Replay Magazine awarded the arcade version first place in Dedicated Video in its 1989 Best Videos and Pins Special Report. Sinclair User rated it 8 out of 10, comparing it to Super Sprint on dirt. The Spectrum version placed 47th in the Your Sinclair Readers' Top 100 Games of All Time, and Amiga Power ranked it the 35th-best game of all time. Electronic Gaming Monthly rated the Atari Lynx port a 3.75 out of 10, criticising choppy animation despite acknowledging the strength of the original arcade game.
The arcade version and Track Pak were re-released in Midway Arcade Treasures 3 for PlayStation 2 and Xbox, and again in Midway Arcade Origins (2012) for PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360, both without the Stewart licence. A home sequel, Super Off Road: The Baja, developed by Morgan for the SNES in 1993, moved to a third-person camera and centred racing on the Baja 1000. The arcade sequel Off Road Challenge followed in 1997 with a three-dimensional third-person view, receiving a Nintendo 64 port in 1998; Offroad Thunder released in arcades in 1999 as the third installment.