It’s not a “variable” – it’s a placeholder that is used in the .replace() call. $n represents the nth capture group of the regular expression.
var num = "11222333";
// This regex captures the last 3 digits as capture group #2
// and all preceding digits as capture group #1
var re = /(\d+)(\d{3})/;
console.log(re.test(num));
// This replace call replaces the match of the regex (which happens
// to match everything) with the first capture group ($1) followed by
// a comma, followed by the second capture group ($2)
console.log(num.replace(re, "$1,$2"));