Continuity mistake: At the Gator Motel, after Cledus and Bandit get part of the money, when Bandit starts crying about Frog and blows his nose into the money, there is a side shot showing a wad of bills in Bandit's shirt pocket before he actually puts the bills into his pocket in a following shot. (00:12:45)
Continuity mistake: When Sheriff Justice has caused the roller coaster frame to collapse his car's left front hubcap is gone, but soon reappears. Then during the "game of chicken" between the semi-trailers and police cars, his car's left back hubcap is gone, but reappears just before Justice thinks about retiring.
Revealing mistake: When the sheriff's car is flipped upside down, the sign behind the car is upside down too, so you can tell the car isn't really upside down.
Factual error: The Bandit is in a showdown with Buford T. Justice in a desert mountain range shortly after crossing into Texas. There are no desert mountain ranges in eastern Texas.
Continuity mistake: The rear view mirror on Sheriff Justice's car repeatedly disappears and reappears.
Continuity mistake: Bandit and Frog are driving in the T/A with the windows up and the T-tops on. When Bandit passes the screaming girls in the Eldorado, the windows are down and the T-tops are off. They then cut back to the inside of the car with the windows up and T-tops back on.
Continuity mistake: When Buford T. Justice's car goes off the drawbridge, it is a different older body style car than what he was driving originally.
Revealing mistake: When Sheriff Justice's car falls off of the drawbridge, there are ropes visible on the sides.
Revealing mistake: Right after one of the Mountie's cars is split in half by the snowplow, you can see the mini-wheel used to keep the half-car propped up.
Deliberate mistake: In a couple of scenes, Bandit's Trans Am's engine sounds are dubbed, and you can hear the shifting of a manual transmission when his car was an automatic.
Continuity mistake: When Cledus is racing his truck in the beginning scenes, several times they show him out in the lead by himself, but then they'd cut to him inside the truck and he was always passing the same trucks over and over again.
Revealing mistake: When in the desert crash scenes, there is a side on view of a garbage truck lifting up a Police car and dropping it into its bin on the back. In the foreground is an upturned Police car that another car vaults over and crashes. You can see the ramp in front of the upturned car that enables the other Police car to vault it.
Visible crew/equipment: When the Trans Am drives out of the roller coaster frame (before it collapses), in Bandit and Frog's next close-up camera equipment (used for the close-up) is visible on the car's roof, though in the previous shot nothing is atop the car.
Factual error: There is absolutely no way a Trans Am can tow the weight of a 9,000 lb elephant, plus the weight of a newborn elephant and 2 trailers. Such weight with a car like that would, at the very least, break an axle and destroy a transmission.
Plot hole: How can a doctor (not a veterinarian) with no medical equipment tell for certain how far along a pregnant elephant is, especially when the gestation period for an elephant is 20-22 months?
Revealing mistake: When Mean Joe Green tips over Sheriff Justice's car, parts of the engine are missing.
Continuity mistake: When the Bandit's car jumps over Buford T. Justice's car, Justice's car somehow turns into an older body style car than what he was originally driving.
Continuity mistake: When Smokey's about to try and jump the bridge, we see it rising, he starts pulling away, then we see it lowering to flat, then in the next shot it's raised again as he drives up it.
Answer: To me, in real life, it looks like a roller coaster was already set up for demolition because of its poor conditions, and the crew was able to film it for the movie. However, in-universe, the owner kept saying they were closed. It's possible they were closed to repair the roller coaster to make it work but now it's completely destroyed and beyond repair.
Bishop73