Badlands is effectively the spiritual successor to Atari's previous racing games Super Sprint and Championship Sprint. Similarly to the Sprint titles, Badlands pits three cars against each other in a three lap race around a small, single-screen circuit. Bonuses are present in the form of wrenches which can be traded for goods such as extra speed, extra acceleration or better tires

Unlike the Sprint games, Badlands expands upon the formula, taking place in a post-apocalyptic environment and equipping each of the players with cannons. In reality, the cannons do little except to slow cars down by repeatedly shooting at them, but the shop between levels offers the possibility of arming the car with missiles which will destroy the target car, placing it at a severe disadvantage as a replacement is brought onto the track, taking a few seconds.

The tracks also featured a number of new obstacles, including mines and retractable barricades.