Excitebike is a motocross racing video game franchise made by Nintendo. It is the first game of the Excite series, succeeded by its sequel Excitebike 64, the spiritual successors Excite Truck and Excitebots: Trick Racing, and the WiiWare title Excitebike: World Rally.

Whether the player chooses to race solo or against computer-assisted riders, he/she races against a certain time limit. The goal is to qualify for the Excitebike (the championship) race by coming in at third place or above in the challenge race (preliminary race). The times to beat are located on the stadium walls (for first place) and in the lower left corner (for third place). In any race, the best time is 8 seconds ahead of third place. When the player places first, then they get a message: "It's a new record!" Additional points are earned by beating the previously-set record time.

The player controls the position of the red motorcycle with the Y-axis of the directional pad, and controls acceleration with the A and B buttons. Using B causes greater acceleration, but also increases the motorcycle's temperature shown as a bar at the bottom of the screen. If the temperature exceeds safe limits (the bar becomes full), the player will be immobilized for several seconds while the bike cools down. Driving over an arrow will immediately reduce the bike's temperature.

The pitch of the motorcycle can be modified with the X-axis of the directional pad, left raises the front, while right lowers the front. In the air, this rotates the bike, but can also be used to create wheelies on the ground. The up and down arrows on turn the hand bar left and right, respectively when the bike is on the ground.

At the start of the game, the player can choose one of five tracks he/she wants to race in.