The fictional city of Rockport consists of three major districts (Rosewood, Camden Beach and Downtown Rockport) consisting of grimy industrial areas, more affluent suburbs, mountainous and wooded surroundings, a university campus, and a downtown core, with a mixture of road networks ranging from coastal roads to major highways. Much of the game's events and story take place in a fixed time-period between sunrise and sunset.
The game begins with the player taking part in a sprint race against Clarence "Razor" Callahan, in order to take his #15 spot on the blacklist. During the race, player receives a call stating that his custom painted BMW M3 GTR suffered an oil leak at the start line, and the player had to end the race fast.
In a flashback to a few days ago, the player is seen arriving at Rockport for the very first time, hoping to take part in the city's illegal street racing scene. Upon arriving, he meets with Mia Townsend in her Mazda RX-8, who offers to help him get started. He also crosses paths with Sergeant Jonathan Cross, the city's top traffic police officer in the Rockport Police Department (RPD) who drives a custom-painted Chevrolet Corvette police interceptor, along with his unnamed partner. Cross seeks to bring down the "Blacklist", a group of the fifteen most-wanted drivers sought by the RPD[3] and declares that street racing in Rockport is "finished". Cross almost arrests the player before being forced to answer another street racing distress call; Cross leaves after keying the player's car.
Then the player starts competing with other street racers, such as Ronald "Ronnie" McCrea and befriends fellow racer Rog. He soon catches the attention of Razor, who underestimates the player and dispatches Toru "Bull" Sato to defeat the player but Bull is defeated instead. The player thus receives the chance to race against Razor in a "pink slip" race and the timeline comes back to the present.
In the present the player loses the race due to the oil leak caused by Ronnie sabotaging the player's car under Razor's directions, and Razor soon claims the player's BMW for himself before fleeing with the other racers, as Cross and the RPD arrive. With no car to escape, the player is arrested.
After some time, the player is released from custody due to lack of evidence, and is picked up by Mia. She explains that Razor had the BMW sabotaged to win it, and used it to take the #1 spot on the Blacklist. Providing the player with a safehouse and helping him buy a new car, Mia recommends that the player work up the Blacklist himself, defeating each of its racers, in order to challenge Razor and win back his car.
