The objective of this aerial racing simulation is to complete a lap around the course as quickly as possible. You steer using an elaborate set of flight controls to work the different systems on your plane. The scenery and your opponent are shown in 3D shaded polygon rendering, and your cockpit view may be turned and zoomed.

Any race can be recorded, saved and played back at will. Another unusual feature (for 1985) is the two-player experience: Pylon Racer is one of the early forerunners in online play, allowing two racers to compete remotely in real-time - if both of them own 1200bps auto-answering modems, that is. In the absence of such luxury equipment, another player can load your saved flight data, and race against your recorded performance.

Two skill levels are available. There's also an optional "Laser Tag" mode, where the two opponents chase each other around the sky and try to score "hits" on each other using laser guns.