Once the player picks a character, they will have to race their previous self in order to beat their time. Time Attack appears in Sonic R where players complete three laps and race for the best time. Here, the player can complete the individual Zones in the game and check out the best time for each of them. In Sonic Labyrinth, Time Attack is available from the menu. Due the Sega Game Gear's lack of a battery backup, none of the records made in Time Attack can be saved on the game's hardware. In Sonic the Hedgehog Triple Trouble, Time Attack features a single, separated Act of the Great Turquoise Zone, which lacks enemies and also holds different gimmicks from the gameplay. In Sonic the Hedgehog 3, and the lock-on game Sonic 3 & Knuckles, the player can access the gameplay of Time Attack in Competition mode, where they take control of Sonic, Tails or Knuckles and run through any of the five Zones made exclusively for this mode ( Azure Lake, Balloon Park, Chrome Gadget, Desert Palace and Endless Mine). In the 2011 remaster of Sonic the Hedgehog CD, the player can unlock certain features if they can clear Time Attack with the total time of all Zones below a certain amount. Using a cheat code, one can see the best times of members of the Sonic Team, who developed the game. In Special Stages, the player is not affected if running on the water in terms of the time.

However, the player will not be able to enter the Time Warp in the first two Zones, and the third Zone will always be in the bad future.

Time is recorded and then added to the player's save file at the end of a stage. Sonic the Hedgehog CD is the first Sonic game to utilize this gameplay where stages (including Special Stages) can be replayed in Time Attack mode for a challenge. The Time Attack menu, from Sonic the Hedgehog CD.

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