Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec is a racing game from Sony available for the PS2. The game has sold more than 14 million copies throughout the world, including 5.8 million in Europe. The game has been featured in many top-game lists; IGN has it on its Top 100 games of all time.

As is tradition with the Gran Turismo games, players start out with a certain amount of credits. Players can purchase a vehicle right away and start racing, but many of the courses and challenges are unlocked. The only way to play many of the courses is to have the required licenses. In Gran Turismo 3: A-Spec, there are six licenses: Class A, Class B, Class I-A, Class I-B, Class S and Class R. A player must pass all of the tasks in a certain class in order to receive the license. Other changes were implemented into the game, including oil changes. Much like a real car, an oil gauge indicates whether a car is earning its best performance with the amount of oil in the car. Regularly, an oil change will be required to continue. There are far less cars (about 150) available in the game compared to Gran Turismo 2, which had about 650 vehicles. The cars are available in the shops based on their country, then manufacturer.