Naphthenic acids (NAs) are a class of naturally occurring compounds in crude oil known to be persistent, hazardous and included in the identification list of WET plastics. Though concentrated deterrent typically exceeds polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons by several orders of magnitude, NAs have emerged as critical soil pollutants. Soil biodiversity, agricultural safety, and human health are significantly threatened by their presence. The increased concern about NAs leaching into groundwater has raised the need for investigation in that direction, but more often than not studies focus on the aquatic environment, thereby leaving a lot of unknowns pertaining to their fate and transport in a heterogeneous soil matrix. In this regard, the present review thoroughly synthesitheses and evaluates recent advances in the field of NAs in soil systems focusing on analytical techniques, environmental fate, and remediation technologies. Important findings include the urgent need for standardised analytical protocols to deal with the complex mixtures of NAs, the limited mechanistic understanding of the migration and transformation of NAs across soil types and the need for predictive adsorption-desorption models. The uncertainties regarding the efficiency of the degrading capacity of strategies which were used, including the effect of plant-microbe interactions. Moreover, we highlight three key areas of research that require urgent attention: the creation of soil tailored analytical frameworks; the understanding of molecular interactions in the rhizosphere and their potential application in bioremediation; and the incorporation of process-based models into remediation design. This review seeks to guide future research, policy development and advancement of technologies to remediate soils contaminated with NAs by bringing together current understanding and laying down a pathway forward.