diff --git a/internal/config/features.go b/internal/config/features.go
index 80d3c95a..d5ce22df 100644
--- a/internal/config/features.go
+++ b/internal/config/features.go
@@ -21,6 +21,9 @@ type features struct {
 	// DisableImexChannelCreation ensures that the implicit creation of
 	// requested IMEX channels is skipped when invoking the nvidia-container-cli.
 	DisableImexChannelCreation *feature `toml:"disable-imex-channel-creation,omitempty"`
+	// RequireNvidiaKernelModules indicates that the NVIDIA kernel module must be
+	// loaded for the NVIDIA Container Runtime to perform any OCI spec modifications.
+	RequireNvidiaKernelModules *feature `toml:"require-nvidia-kernel-module,omitempty"`
 }
 
 //nolint:unused
diff --git a/internal/runtime/runtime_factory.go b/internal/runtime/runtime_factory.go
index 50c19a4f..436db3fd 100644
--- a/internal/runtime/runtime_factory.go
+++ b/internal/runtime/runtime_factory.go
@@ -18,6 +18,7 @@ package runtime
 
 import (
 	"fmt"
+	"os"
 
 	"github.com/NVIDIA/nvidia-container-toolkit/internal/config"
 	"github.com/NVIDIA/nvidia-container-toolkit/internal/config/image"
@@ -41,6 +42,11 @@ func newNVIDIAContainerRuntime(logger logger.Interface, cfg *config.Config, argv
 		return lowLevelRuntime, nil
 	}
 
+	if cfg.Features.RequireNvidiaKernelModules.IsEnabled() && !isNvidiaModuleLoaded() {
+		logger.Tracef("NVIDIA driver modules are not yet loaded; skipping modifer")
+		return lowLevelRuntime, nil
+	}
+
 	ociSpec, err := oci.NewSpec(logger, argv)
 	if err != nil {
 		return nil, fmt.Errorf("error constructing OCI specification: %v", err)
@@ -62,6 +68,19 @@ func newNVIDIAContainerRuntime(logger logger.Interface, cfg *config.Config, argv
 	return r, nil
 }
 
+// isNvidiaKernelModuleLoaded checks whether the NVIDIA GPU driver is installed
+// and the kernel module is available.
+func isNvidiaModuleLoaded() bool {
+	// TODO: This was implemented as:
+	// cat /proc/modules | grep -e \"^nvidia \" >/dev/null 2>&1
+	// if [ "${?}" != "0" ]; then
+	//	echo "nvidia driver modules are not yet loaded, invoking runc directly"
+	//	exec runc "$@"
+	// fi
+	_, err := os.Stat("/proc/driver/nvidia/version")
+	return err == nil
+}
+
 // newSpecModifier is a factory method that creates constructs an OCI spec modifer based on the provided config.
 func newSpecModifier(logger logger.Interface, cfg *config.Config, ociSpec oci.Spec, driver *root.Driver) (oci.SpecModifier, error) {
 	rawSpec, err := ociSpec.Load()