Is the EA app able to stay running while in an EA game?

Whenever I play an EA game via the EA app, the app closes to "prepare my game." I'm sure this is not a bug, rather a setting. Is it possible to keep the EA app open when playing an EA game, or is this needed in order to possibly optimize the game? I'm asking this because I want to know whether or not installing games continue to download when in an EA app game.