One way to think about the box topology on the space of all functions $f:[0,1]\to\mathbb{R}$ is that the basic open neighborhoods of such an $f$ consist of all functions that lay inside a tiny tube around $f$, whose radius can vary (even discontinuously).
Now, the point is that if every such tube around $f$ contains a continuous function, then $f$ itself must be continuous, by a simple $\epsilon/3$ argument. That is, for any $x\in[0,1]$ and any $\epsilon\gt 0$, pick a tube of radius $\epsilon/3$ and a continuous function $g$ within that tube. Since $g$ is continuous at $x$, there is some $\delta\gt 0$ such that any $y$ within $\delta$ of $x$ has $g(y)$ within $\epsilon/3$ of $g(x)$, and also $f(y)$ within $\epsilon/3$ of $g(y)$ and $f(x)$ within $\epsilon/3$ of $g(x)$. So altogether, $f(y)$ is within $\epsilon$ of $f(x)$, as desired.
In the product topology, in contrast, the basic open sets can be thought of as specifying tiny windows at finitely many points in the domain, such that any function that goes through those windows is counted as in the open set. (In the box topology, in contrast, we in effect get to specify a window at every point in the domain.) Consider the functions $f_n(x)=x^n$. The pointwise limit of these functions is not continuous, since it has value $0$ on $[0,1)$ and value $1$ at $x=1$. But any basic open neighborhood of that limit function will contain some $f_n$, and so the limit function is in the closure of the continuous functions, but not itself continuous.