The longer highway length gives a more realistic shape, with long straight areas, gentle curves, rest areas and large interchanges. In Undercover, the main highway circles Tri-City, with each of the four boroughs sharing a piece of the larger circuit. In previous installments, highways were relatively small circuits concentrated within separate boroughs. Undercover also features a new continuous highway system. The road system includes four water crossings, going clockwise: the Main Guy Causeway (Ocean Expressway connecting Sunset Hills to Port Crescent via man-made island), the Vale Causeway (Sunset Hills to Palm Harbor), the North T Causeway (Man-made island to Palm Harbor), and the Memorial Tunnel (Port Crescent to Palm Harbor). These four boroughs make up the city, Tri-City, presumably a city located on the Gulf Coast or on the California Coast although the city itself heavily resembles Los Angeles. In the Wii and PS2 versions two boroughs are copied off Need for Speed Most Wanted and put into different positions. The game's environment consists of four boroughs: Palm Harbor, Port Crescent, Gold Coast Mountains, and Sunset Hills (in the DS version the boroughs are Metropolis, North Port Crescent, South Port Crescent and Riverton).
Undercover features a new open world map (like the Midnight Club series) consisting of 109 miles (175 km) of road and a large highway system, making it the largest Need for Speed 'world' EA has created so far.
