Continuity mistake: In the very first race at the start of the film, while Rowdy is moving up the pack, you can catch a glimpse of Cole Trickle's #46 City Chevrolet car. At this point, it has not been built yet and shouldn't be racing. (00:03:19)
Factual error: When Nicole Kidman is giving Tom Cruise a Neurological exam she does what she says is called "The Vavinski sign" (running the back of a reflex hammer along foot sole). It is actually called the Babinski sign, a reflex that can be the indicator of brain or spinal cord damage. Big toe goes up and other toes spread = bad (or just ticklish). Nothing = okay. Toes go down = okay. Even professionals (note I'm not one) have trouble interpreting this one, and you cannot get accurate results by doing it on yourself, folks. (00:57:55)
Continuity mistake: In the bed scene with Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman, after she says "you and Harry work on that, huh?", the shot changes and her arms magically change position, twice. (00:59:45)
Audio problem: In Cole's second race after returning from his injuries, he is heard to say "Son of a bitch!" after Russ collides with him, but his lips don't move. (01:09:55)
Audio problem: In the final race, Cole says "Son of a... !", but as occurred in a previous race, his lips don't move. (01:37:15)
Revealing mistake: When Tom Cruise and his girlfriend are visiting his former arch rival and now good friend, his wife calls Tom "Tom", not by his character's name.
Continuity mistake: When Harry is telling Cole to "Run 50 laps your way, then run 50 laps my way and I'll beat you every time," Harry is at first wearing a Georgia bulldogs baseball cap. Then a Florida Gators hat when he leans in the driver's window. Moments later when he speaks to Cole over the radio after the test run has started, he's now wearing a Georgia Bulldogs hat again.
Plot hole: I have never seen a Daytona 500 race where the winner is immediately left completely alone and is able to walk over to his crew chief who is still at the pit wall and hold a quiet conversation.
Factual error: One of the first races that Cole runs is Phoenix. Phoenix International Raceway is a very flat track. There are several shots in that segment showing a high-banked oval.
Continuity mistake: Multiple times in the movie one shot of the cars will show them covered with blackness from smoke, while the immediate next shot will show clean race cars.
Audio problem: In one scene Tom Cruise's accelerator gets stuck - you see him pounding on the accelerator while telling his crew chief Harry Hog "the accelerator is stuck" but Tom Cruise's mouth never moves when he speaks.
Continuity mistake: During the race with Cole and Rowdy's big crash, you'll see Cole racing Rowdy for the lead. When the scene cuts to them racing at one point, you'll see the number 3 car of Dale Earnhardt where Rowdy's car should be.
Continuity mistake: During many of the races shown in the movie shots from the wrong track are shown. For example, the caption at the bottom of the screen for one race claimed they were at Martinsville speedway, but a shot was shown from Daytona speedway (in one shot you can even see DAYTONA USA painted on the wall!)
Continuity mistake: When Cole goes to get Harry after the final race at Daytona and Harry is sitting on the pit wall, you see that he is sitting on a black banner reading Mello Yello 51. Than the two start talking and after that they race to victory lane. Just when they start to run if you look at the wall where Harry was just sitting the Banner is now Blue and has white lettering.
Continuity mistake: In the last race when Cole is trying to pass Russ the covering for headlight keeps disappearing and reappearing.
Factual error: If Cole's car really had that much damage towards the end of a race like the Daytona 500 at the end, he'd be in or near last place. Races on superspeedways like Daytona require the car to maintain its aerodynamic properties to keep up with the race speed. If his car had that much damage he'd probably be black flagged anyway.
Continuity mistake: At the beginning of the race that Cole and Rowdy have their big wreck in, there is a shot of Rowdy's crew chief. He is wearing a coat and the sky behind him is cloudy. Next there is a shot of Cole's crew. They are all wearing short sleeved shirts and the sky behind them is sunny.
Continuity mistake: At one point Cruise and Kidman are talking in a white car when a taxi bumps them at a stop. Cruise throws the car into reverse, slams the gas and they cut to a picture of the wheels spinning - forward! Then the taxi comes around Cruise's car and Tom throws the car into Drive. Again the scene cuts to smoking tires, spinning in REVERSE. The scenes were mistakenly swapped.
Continuity mistake: Near the end when Cole and Harry are talking about racing Rowdys car, they're standing in the garage and Harry is to the right of Cole, the shot changes and Harry is to the left.
Continuity mistake: While Kidman's character is talking to Cruise's character just before the last race, the camera switches from behind to in front of her several times. Her hair keeps switching too. First it is blowing into her face, then out behind her, and back and forth. All supposedly during one short conversation.
