R4 retains the core powersliding mechanic of earlier Ridge Racer games while adding structured depth through its Grand Prix, titled Real Racing Roots '99. Players select one of four racing teams — R.C Micro Mouse Mappy (France), Pac Racing Club (Japan), Racing Team Solvalou (Italy), and Dig Racing Team (United States) — each with its own difficulty level and story. A manufacturer is then chosen from four options — Age Solo, Lizard, Assoluto, and Terrazi — which determines both the car style and the handling mode used: Drift (brake-tap to initiate a slide) or Grip (throttle-brake alternation).
Car progression is tied directly to race performance. Qualifying positions in each race unlock new vehicles or upgrades; the best cars require consistently finishing first. With every combination of team, manufacturer, and qualifying result accounted for, the game contains 320 earnable vehicles, plus a bonus Pac-Man car for completing all combinations, totaling 321.
Additional modes include Time Attack, a two-player split-screen VS. Battle mode (the first in the home console Ridge Racer series), an undocumented four-player PlayStation Link Cable mode, and Extra Trials against prototype cars. Players could also create custom car liveries and, in Japan, trade vehicles via the PocketStation peripheral.
Development began in May 1997. The entire 33-person team had previously worked on the original Ridge Racer (1993). A key technical advance was the adoption of Gouraud shading on polygons — the first Ridge Racer PlayStation title to use it — achieved by eliminating graphical "waste" to free up processing headroom. Sony's Performance Analyser devkit was used during development, a tool also employed on the critically acclaimed Gran Turismo at the time. The opening cinematic, starring series mascot Reiko Nagase, took over six months to plan and produce. Visual inspiration for the game's sky rendering came partly from Ace Combat 2.
Sound director Hiroshi Okubo led the music alongside composers Kohta Takahashi, Asuka Sakai, Tetsukazu Nakanishi, and Koji Nakagawa. Where earlier Ridge Racer games leaned on rave and hardcore electronic music, R4 explored funk, breakbeat, acid jazz, UK garage, progressive house, and neo soul. Okubo described the aim as "more mature, more fashionable." Several tracks feature vocals by American singer Kimara Lovelace, whom Okubo discovered at a club event in Nishi-Azabu in May 1998. The music was designed to mirror the game's human drama, with composers aiming to evoke emotion rather than pure energy. Takahashi and Sakai, neither of whom had prior club music experience, had multiple tracks rejected before meeting Okubo's standard. A soundtrack album, R4: Ridge Racer Type 4 Direct Audio, was released by Media Factory on January 27, 1999. A 20th anniversary release followed in 2019 with new remixes alongside a remastered original.
A peripheral called the Jogcon — a controller with a resistance-wheel mechanism — was released packaged alongside the game in special editions. R4 also shipped with a bonus disc containing a High-Spec version of the original Ridge Racer running at 60 frames per second, matching its arcade counterpart, alongside demos for LiberoGrande, Tales of Destiny, Tekken 3, and Klonoa.
R4 received generally favorable contemporary reviews. Famitsu awarded it 35 out of 40. GameSpot's Jeff Gerstmann and Next Generation both praised the game, and Official UK PlayStation Magazine's preview described it as achieving "the best of both worlds" between arcade immediacy and meaningful depth. The game sold 759,527 units in Japan and 297,564 in the United States, totaling over one million copies across those two markets. It was the 18th best-selling game in Japan in 1998 despite releasing in December.
Retrospective reception has elevated R4 further. Push Square named it the best PlayStation Ridge Racer entry. Hardcore Gamer wrote in 2018 that "no entry has quite topped it yet." Time Extension ranked it first on their Best Ridge Racer Games list in 2023. Polygon and GamesRadar both place it among the best PlayStation games overall. Den of Geek included it in a list of PlayStation titles ahead of their time, citing its balance of arcade feel and genuine substance. The game was re-released on PlayStation Network in 2011, included in the PlayStation Classic mini console in 2018, and made available on PlayStation 4 and 5 in 2023.