Factual error: At the "Prototype Exhibition" party, Jimmy and Joe hop in two cars for a run through the Chicago streets. But, CART cars do not have built-in starters, they need external ones.
Factual error: Champ Cars run on Methanol which 1) burns with an invisible flame and 2) is extinguished by water. Therefore the car in the lake crash sequence would not burn or explode like that.
Factual error: The weather forecast that is shown prior to the race in Germany is supposed to be on German TV, yet they show the temperature in "Celsius" as well as in "Fahrenheit". In Germany there is no "Fahrenheit" in the weather forecasts.
Factual error: In Germany we see an ambulance that says that the emergency phone number were 122, but in Germany its 112.
Factual error: At the very end of the final race, Bly is racing Brandenburg. When Joe's car starts to spin, it switches to Bly experiencing "tunnel vision" and you can clearly see him make a right hand turn. Then when Bly and Brandenburg pass the finish line, Joe spins across the line after them. It's not very possible that a spinning car (out of control) can make a turn.
Factual error: Before the race in Germany, there is a weather broadcast on TV where it explains how rainy it's going to be during the race. All the country names are in English, but since the broadcast is supposed to be German, Germany should be "Deutschland", France "Frankreich" and Austria "Osterreich".
Factual error: The movie says that Jimmy Bly is the champion at the end. - wrong. Brandenburg went in to the final race with a 4 point lead. He led the most laps (4 1) = 5 point lead Bly won, Brandenburg second (20-16 = 4) 5-4 = Beau Brandenburg is the winner by one point. In CART you get an extra point for leading the most laps.
Factual error: After the huge first lap crash involving "The Vistion Car" the CART Safety Team is seen rushing to the crash. They are not only going against track direction (which is allowed only to get them there faster) but they are going through turns 11 and 10. It would have been much faster had they followed track direction because the way they were going they we going to cover about 2/3 of the track to get to the crash. (00:34:10)
Factual error: Gravel traps, grass, and trees are in the background at the Toronto track when Joe is doing his "Coin Bit". Toronto is a temporary street course with nothing but tyre and cement walls to hit. (00:19:21)
Factual error: At the start of the Toronto race, they show a skydiver dropping-in with an American flag. The footage used was shot at Long Beach along with another crowd scene where a Long Beach Grand Prix beer cup is clearly visible.
Factual error: In the frontal collision between the two cars where one is catapulted through the air using the other as a firing ramp, the nose section on the flying car is clearly a tubular metal construction. The deformation zone of the car would be made from carbon.
Factual error: During the movie the driver Brandenburg is driving the Target car with the helmet design of Juan Pablo Montoya (former CART driver now in F1). This was done to take video of Acquall races and put them in the movie, but at the end of the movie, before the big race, you see drivers getting ready for the start, including JP Montoya, with the same helmet as Brandenburg. I have never seen two of the same helmets in two same cars in one race.
Factual error: It is heavily raining during the German race, but the track has many banked sections. In that particular era (late 1990s/early 2000s), CART never allowed wet weather racing to take place on banked tracks. (01:11:15)
Factual error: In the specially shot action scenes the cars used are not Champ Cars. The main giveaway is the shape of the car from behind the driver's head backwards, which is not flat (as Champ Cars) and does not include the turbo pop off valve used in CART.
Factual error: Before the race in Germany we see a weather broadcast on an European broadcasting station. Unfortunately there is no such broadcasting station.
Factual error: During "Joe's Coin Bit", the team wouldn't be able to hear Joe humming. Race car radios are activated by a button on the steering wheel.
Suggested correction: So maybe he held the button the whole time to prove a point. This is movie-land, after all.
Factual error: In the last race Jimmy Bly is in second place behind Beau Brandenburg. You see a shot of Jimmy's helmet and on it you see the reflection of the car in front of him. On the tail wing you can read the brand 'Motorola' from left to right. However, as it is a reflection, you wouldn't be able to read it form left to right, but rather from right to left.
Factual error: Before the final race, the first race car seen in background has rain tyres mounted the wrong way (the tip of the V is facing backwards).
Factual error: After the crash at the German race, there are some ambulances on the track. There are also some Volkswagen buses with the inscription "German Grand Prix" on it. First, the "German Grand Prix" can only refer to the Formula One Championship which is driven on the "Hockenheimring". Furthermore, there is no way a grand prix management would use such weak cars for cases of emergency at any kinds of races.
Factual error: Throughout the movie the champion is referred to as the "World Champion". The title World Champion is only used for Formula One drivers. Driven is based on the CART series. The champion in CART is called the "CART Champion".
