Need for Speed: Hot Pursuit was developed by British games developer Criterion Games and published by Electronic Arts on November 16, 2010.[148] It focuses on racing and cop chases rather than car customization. Hot Pursuit, as the name implies, tends to return the series to the roots, and is inspired by the original 3DO Need For Speed game. The game won many awards at the E3 2010, including "Best Racing Game" and other "Best of E3"-awards. It is the first game in the Need for Speed series since the original Hot Pursuit to win an E3 award, and is currently the highest-rated Need for Speed game.

There are over 60 cars, most of them are available to both racers and cops, but a few are exclusive to each side.[149] Most of them are exotics and feature cars such as the Lamborghini Reventón, McLaren F1, Bugatti Veyron and Pagani Zonda Cinque. Unlike previous NFS titles, there is no customization. Instead of cities and circuits like previous games, the game takes place in a fictional rural area called Seacrest County. The scenery ranges from dense forests to snowy mountains to deserts. The "free roam" feature in the game lets you explore Seacrest County. Hot Pursuit lets players play as either a cop or racer, and has a separate career mode for each side. The game's primary focus is to provide players with high speed cop versus racer chases.

The game also features many weapons. Some are exclusive to the cops or racers. Power-ups include spike strips, which are used by both cops and racers and activate a spike strip from the back of the car and lay it on the road, and EMPs (electromagnetic pulses) which are used by both cops and racers and can be used for taking down cops or racers, or for performing takedowns (which is an important feature of the Burnout series). Other weapons include helicopters and roadblocks for cops and turbo and jammers for racers.

The biggest feature introduced in Hot Pursuit is Need for Speed Autolog, which track player progressions and statistics compared to other player and recommends players events to play. In addition to its statistical system, Autolog also features Facebook-like speedwalls where players can post their comments and photos while in the game. This Autolog feature carried on in the next game, Shift 2: Unleashed. Hot Pursuit has received some of the best reviews of the series, which generally praise the Autolog feature of the game and the cop vs racer chases.