We characterize rational actions of the additive group on algebraic varieties defined over a field of characteristic zero in terms of a suitable integrability property of their associated velocity vector fields. This extends the classical correspondence between regular actions of the additive group on affine algebraic varieties and the so-called locally nilpotent derivations of their coordinate rings. Our results lead in particular to a complete characterization of regular additive group actions on semi-affine varieties in terms of their associated vector fields. Among other applications, we review properties of the rational counterpart of the Makar-Limanov invariant for affine varieties and describe the structure of rational homogeneous additive group actions on toric varieties.