Once you have inserted the disc of ZOO Digital Publishing's Simian Industries-developed 2003 racing game Beanotown Racing into the CD drive of your Microsoft Windows (NT Workstation 4.0, 98, 2000, ME, and XP only) computer, its Setup program should run automatically; if it does not, you must run it manually. You will then have to run the game, through either the desktop or Start menu shortcut created by the Setup program - and after the "OFFICIAL BEANO PRODUCT", ZOO Digital Publishing, Simian Industries and RenderWare logos have been shown, the title screen displayed above shall appear.
Once you have either clicked on the text "CLICK TO START" or pressed , the game will proceed to its Main Menu shown above, which has five options: Beanotown Championship (which plays through the six tracks in succession), Single Race (which lets you select one of the tracks to have a one-off race on), Time Trial (which again lets you select one of the tracks, only this time, to see how fast you can complete a lap of it), Settings (which lets you adjust the music volume, effects volume and GFX detail), and Quit (which lets you return to Windows); if you choose to enter one of the seven cheat codes that were given out in the Dandy and Beano comics at the time the game was new on this screen, a picture of Dennis dressed as a secret agent shall appear with the text "CHEAT ACTIVATED" to his right, and the game shall immediately proceed to the character selection screen in Single Race mode (but by choosing "BACK TO MAIN MENU", you can also use the cheat codes for both Beanotown Championship and Time Trial mode).
| Code | Effect |
|---|---|
| AUSSIE | Turns the screen upside-down, much like if you were playing as the second player when emulating a cocktail arcade cabinet for MAME |
| BIGBOD | Gives the character you select a giant body, allowing for better control over their car when several turns have to be made in succession |
| BIGCAR | Gives the character you select a giant car, preventing the CPU-controlled racers from passing it (unless they manage to drive around it) |
| BIGPIE | Gives the character you select the ability to fire giant cow pies (however, those fired by the CPU-controlled racers remain normal-sized) |
| CALAMITY | Lets you race with Calamity James, who shall replace the character that you select for the race (however, his car's steering is reversed) |
| FLIP | Mirrors the tracks (indicated by the writing on them being displayed backwards after the activation), effectively giving you six new tracks |
| WALTER | Lets you race with Walter the Softy when you select Dennis (selecting any of the other characters after activating this one will not work) |
As mentioned on the main page, you shall initially only be able to select either Korky the Cat, Dennis the Menace, Roger the Dodger, Minnie the Minx or Bea the Mini-Menace on the character selection screen; to unlock Desperate Dan, you must win a Championship with any character, and to unlock Plug (from The Bash Street Kids) you must win The Bash Street Burn Up with Bea. Also, to unlock Gnasher, you must win a race with Dennis - and to unlock Bananaman, you must win Street Streak with Gnasher, after you unlock him. Finally, to unlock Brain Duane, you must win The Dandy Dash with Minnie; the game's data is saved in two files named "BTR.SAV" and "CHAMP.SAV", and to reset it back to its original locked state, you will have to delete them.
If you are playing either Single Race or Time Trial mode, the game will proceed to its track selection screen once you have selected a character; again, as mentioned on the main page, you shall initially only be able to select either Wild in the Country or The Bash Street Burn Up on this screen. To unlock Street Streak, The Dandy Dash, Haunted Castle and Wild West Test in these modes, you must finish either first, second or third on them in Beanotown Championship mode - and if you're playing that mode, the game will immediately proceed to its race setup screen once you have selected a character, which lets you set the level of difficulty for your game (in Single Race mode it will proceed to this screen once you have selected a track, and it will also let you set the number of laps for your one-off race from 1 to 9, as in Beanotown Championship mode the number of laps for each race will always be 5). However, if you're playing Time Trial mode, the game shall immediately proceed to that mode's menu on your chosen track once you've selected it.