Development of The Simpsons: Road Rage began promisingly when Radical Entertainment's idea for a Simpsons-themed game inspired by Crazy Taxi was approved. The concept stood out at the time, as it planned to take place on one large map of Springfield when many licensed driving games were simply mascot kart racers, although the team had just 11 months to complete it. Trouble began after series creator Matt Groening saw an early build at E3 2001 and felt it looked too much like the TV show and not enough like a video game, forcing the developers to extensively redo many of the game's textures. This created serious performance problems on the PlayStation 2, which struggled to load new areas when players drove at high speeds. Although the team was able to quickly improve the frame rate, with the deadline approaching, Radical abandoned the planned large overworld by scrapping side missions, additional characters, and splitting the map into six separate regions, using hastily placed barriers and objects to disguise the transitions. Despite a mediocre reception, Radical's experience working through Road Rage's problems helped prepare them to build upon many of its ideas for The Simpsons: Hit & Run.

An unused logo found within the game's files suggests that the game was originally going to be a racing game, as the early title shown in the logo is "The Simpsons: Racing".