The original game does not natively support 16:9 or 21:9 resolutions.
The game also introduced several innovative features, including: Need for Speed Underground -2003--Elamigos Repa...
The of Need for Speed Underground (released around 2015 and updated periodically) solves nearly every problem. Elamigos is famous for taking old, broken games and repackaging them into a single, easy-to-install executable. The original game does not natively support 16:9