Trivia: The opening scene of the demolition derby cars is footage from the 1966 film "Fireball 500."
Trivia: Sylvester Stallone was about to hit some meat in an abattoir. This is part of how his character Rocky Balboa trained in the original Rocky. (00:47:00)
Trivia: Will Smith won the Best Actor Oscar for his role in the film. However, his award was overshadowed by an altercation with Chris Rock earlier in the evening, which saw Smith slap Rock in the face after Rock made a joke about Smith's wife Jada Pinkett Smith (which Will initially laughed at). As a result, Smith was given a 10-year ban from the Oscars ceremony, and also lost consideration for upcoming film roles.
Trivia: Scott Stoddard's teammate at BRM, Bob Turner, is played by British Two time F1 Champion Graham Hill. Pete Aaron's teammate at Yamura, Tim Randolph, is played by American 1961 F1 Champion Phil Hill.
Trivia: After this movie was released, the character Engleberg had to be recast because the actor who played him lost a lot of weight and no longer could play the "fat" catcher so a new heavy actor replaced him in the next two sequels.
Trivia: Throughout the movie, Kurt Warner wore jersey #13, but he is also known as jersey #10 for the St. Louis Rams in the 1999 play-offs.
Trivia: When we see Bugs Bunny for the first time, behind him on the ballpark fence there is a picture of a man with a gun and a detective hat with the words "Mike Maltese, Ace Dick" written nearby. Michael Maltese was the writer for this cartoon.
Trivia: Jane Lynch plays Lucy Bobby, the mother of Ricky Bobby (Will Ferrell). In real life, Lynch is only seven years older than Ferrell.
Trivia: By open admission of one of the original artwork designer Akira "Akiman" Yasuda, the movie (known in Japan as "The Street Fighter") inspired at least 2 of the most iconic backgrounds of the game Street Fighter 2: it is really obvious when you watch the fight between Jim Henry and "the kid", on the docks with a boat in the background much like in Ken 's stage. The cage fight against Henry inspired also Zangief's stage. (00:19:30 - 00:47:50)
Trivia: Although they played mother and son in this film, Anne Revere was only ten years older than John Garfield.
Trivia: The Grand National sequence towards the end of the film combines filmed footage with real footage of the 1983 Grand National.
Trivia: Although Eileen Heckart plays Paul Newman's mother in the film, she was only six years older than Newman.
Trivia: The line the biker chick says in the beginning, "Say it ain't so, Rick" (after being disappointed in Wild Thing's clean cut look and using the word, cute), is from the legend of a kid saying "Say it ain't so, Joe" to Shoeless Joe Jackson when the White Sox were accused of throwing the World Series. Joe Jackson also played for the Indians before the White Sox.
Trivia: Prior to becoming well-known, Cheryl Ladd, Lynda Carter, and Lindsay Wagner tried out for the role of Rosa Rubinsky.
Trivia: During the filming, Charles Bronson did not speak to Elvis Presley off camera and avoided going near Presley as often as possible.
Trivia: At the end of the movie, Carney Lansford spits out chewing tobacco. In reality, they used black liquorice to obtain the same look without having to use the real thing.