Maggie Peyton (Lohan) is an aspiring race car driver. Maggie's family includes her brother, Ray Jr., and her father, Ray Sr., who are members of their namesake's racing team. Herbie, a Volkswagen Beetle, is towed to a junkyard after losing several races, and Ray Sr. takes Maggie to the junkyard to buy her a car as a college graduation present. After Maggie selects Herbie, he takes her against her will to the garage where her boyfriend Kevin works as a mechanic. Kevin has Maggie take Herbie to a car show to buy parts for Herbie, but when they arrive, Herbie tricks Maggie into disguising herself in a racing suit and helmet and challenging NASCAR champion Trip Murphy to an impromptu race, which Herbie wins by a second.
In early September, 1962, recent high school graduates and longtime friends, Curt Henderson and Steve Bolander, meet John Milner and Terry "The Toad" Fields at the local Mel's Drive-In parking lot. Despite receiving a $2,000 scholarship from the local Moose lodge, Curt is undecided if he wants to leave the next morning with Steve to go to the northeastern United States to begin college. Steve lets Toad borrow his 1958 Chevrolet Impala for the evening and while he's away at college. Steve's girlfriend, Laurie, who also is Curt's sister, is unsure of Steve's leaving, to which he suggests - to Laurie's surprise - they see other people while he is away to "strengthen" their relationship. She is not happy with his proposal.
Cousins Bo (Seann William Scott), Luke (Johnny Knoxville), and Daisy Duke (Jessica Simpson) run a moonshine business for their Uncle Jesse (Willie Nelson) in the fictional Hazzard County, Georgia. The cousins' primary mode of transportation is an orange 1969 Dodge Charger that the boys affectionately refer to as 'The General Lee'. Along the way, the family is tormented by corrupt Hazzard County Commissioner Jefferson Davis Hogg, widely known as "Boss Hogg" (Burt Reynolds), and his willing but dimwitted henchman, Sheriff Rosco P. Coltrane (M.
Speed Racer (Emile Hirsch) is an 18-year-old whose life and love has always been automobile racing. His parents Pops (John Goodman) and Mom (Susan Sarandon) run the independent Racer Motors, in which his brother Spritle (Paulie Litt), mechanic Sparky (Kick Gurry), and girlfriend Trixie (Christina Ricci) are also involved. As a child Speed idolized his record-setting older brother, Rex Racer (Scott Porter), who was killed while racing in the Casa Cristo 5000, a cross-country racing rally. Now embarking on his own career, Speed Racer is quickly sweeping the racing world with his skill behind the wheel of his brother's cars, the Mach 5 and his own Formula One car the Mach 6, but remains primarily interested in the art of the race and the well-being of his family.
James Hunt and Niki Lauda are two highly skilled racing car drivers who first develop a fierce rivalry in 1970 at a Formula Three race at the Crystal Palace circuit in Britain, when both their cars spin out and Hunt eventually wins the race. Hunt is a brash, young Englishman with a tendency to vomit before every race, while Lauda is a cool, calculating Austrian technical genius who relies on precision. After a falling out with his father, Lauda takes a large bank loan and buys his way into the British Racing Motors Formula One team, meeting teammate Clay Regazzoni for the first time. Meanwhile, Hesketh Racing, the fledgling racing team Hunt drives for, enters Formula One as well. Lauda then joins Scuderia Ferrari with Regazzoni and wins his first championship in 1975. Hesketh closes shop after failing to secure a sponsor, but Hunt joins McLaren when Emerson Fittipaldi leaves the team. During this time, Hunt marries supermodel Suzy Miller, while Lauda develops a relationship with German socialite Marlene Knaus.
In 2012, the economy of the US completely collapses, causing unemployment and crime rates to skyrocket, and a sharp increase of convicted criminals, which leads to privatized prisons for profit. Hennessey (Joan Allen) is the warden of Terminal Island Penitentiary, as which she earns her profits from the pay-per-view broadcast of a modern gladiator game called "Death Race," with the prisoners as the players.
Race teams have gathered in Connecticut to start a cross-country car race. One at a time, teams drive up to the starters' stand, punch a time card to indicate their time of departure, then take off.
Having lost the first Cannonball Run race, Sheik Abdul ben Falafel (Jamie Farr) is ordered by his father (Ricardo Montalban) to go back to America and win another Cannonball Run in order to "emblazon the Falafel name as the fastest in the world." When Sheik Abdul points out that there is no Cannonball Run that year, his father simply tells him to "buy one."
Halfway through the (Fictionalized) 2001 Champ Car season, rookie driver Jimmy Bly has already won 5 races. His brother/business manager Demille is seems more concerned with working out endorsement deals and press engagements than racing, putting tremendous pressure upon Jimmy. His success has also drawn the ire of the reigning champion and series points leader Beau Brandenburg, who believes he's not doing as well as he should because of his fiancée Sophia becoming "a distraction". He breaks up the engagement and he regains his winning ways.
In 1968, Jim Douglas is a down-on-his luck racing driver, reduced to competing in demolition derby races against drivers half his age. Jim lives in an old fire house overlooking San Francisco Bay with his friend and mechanic, Tennessee Steinmetz, a jolly Brooklynite who constantly extols the virtues of spiritual enlightenment, having spent time amongst Buddhist monks in Tibet, and builds "art" from car parts. After yet another race ends in a crash (and Tennessee turns his Edsel into a sculpture), Jim finds himself without a car and heads into town in search of some cheap wheels. He is enticed into an upmarket European car showroom after setting eyes on an attractive sales assistant, Carole Bennett. Jim witnesses the dealership's British owner, Peter Thorndyke, being unnecessarily abusive towards a white Volkswagen Beetle that rolls into the showroom, and defends the car's honor, much to Thorndyke's displeasure. The following morning Jim is shocked to find that the car is parked outside his house and that Thorndyke is pressing charges for grand theft. A heated argument between Jim and Thorndyke is settled when Carole persuades Thorndyke to drop the charges if Jim buys the car on a system of monthly payments.
Jimmy Logan, ancienne gloire locale de football américain de Virginie-Occidentale, vit désormais de petits boulots en petits boulots. Divorcé de Bobbie Jo, il s'occupe dès qu'il peut de sa fille Sadie, qui participe à des concours de beauté pour enfants. Jimmy est engagé sur un chantier en Caroline du Nord, sur le circuit Charlotte Motor Speedway. Mais il est licencié en raison d'une blessure non déclarée au genou. Très remonté et sans un sou, il convainc son frère Clyde, ancien soldat en Irak et amputé d'un bras, de commettre le braquage de la chambre forte du circuit, équipée de tubes pneumatiques. Pour mener à bien leur plan, ils s'associent au spécialiste des chambres fortes Joe Bang, pourtant incarcéré à Monroe. Ce dernier exige que ses deux frères, Fish et Sam, soient aussi de la partie. Les frères Logan peuvent aussi compter sur leur sœur, Mellie, qui tient un salon de coiffure. Cette petite équipe va donc commettre ce braquage sur la légendaire course de NASCAR Coca-Cola 600, durant le Memorial Day.
Ruthless real estate magnate Alonzo Hawk (Keenan Wynn) is pursuing his newest indoor shopping center, the 130-story Hawk Plaza. His only obstacle is an archaic firehouse inhabited by "Grandma" Steinmetz (Helen Hayes), widow of its former owner, Fire Captain Steinmetz, and aunt of mechanic Tennessee Steinmetz who appeared in The Love Bug; her displaced neighbor, flight attendant Nicole Harris (Stefanie Powers); and their sentient machines: Herbie the Love Bug, an orchestrion that chooses its own songs, and a retired cable car known as "Old No. 22". It is explained that Tennessee has gone to Tibet to visit his ailing philosophy teacher, while Herbie's former owner, Jim Douglas, has gone to Europe.
In 1970s Hollywood, Bobby (Paul Le Mat) works as an auto mechanic by day, and shoots pool and races his red 1968 Chevrolet Camaro by night. His friend Moxey (Robert Carradine) is excited to be accepted to transmission school and build his skills for a better paying job. The less responsible Bobby seems to have no such direction in life and is still relying on his Uncle Charlie (Noble Willingham), a used-car salesman, to help him out of jams, such as by loaning him money to pay off his pool game bets to some menacing Chicanos.
The film stars Dean Jones as returning champion race car driver Jim Douglas, joined by his somewhat cynical and eccentric riding mechanic Wheely Applegate (Don Knotts). Together with Herbie, the "Love Bug", a 1963 Volkswagen Beetle, they are participating in the fictional Trans-France Race, from Paris, France, to Monte Carlo, Monaco. According to dialogue, they hope to stage a racing comeback in the event.
The Great Leslie (Tony Curtis) and Professor Fate (Jack Lemmon) are competing daredevils at the turn of the 20th century. Leslie is the classic hero – always dressed in white, handsome, ever-courteous, enormously talented and successful. Leslie's nemesis, Fate, is the traditional melodramatic villain – usually dressed in black, sporting a black moustache and top hat, glowering at most everyone, maniacal evil laugh, grandiose plans to thwart the hero, and dogged by failure. Leslie proposes an automobile race from New York to Paris, to prove the ability of a new car named after him. Fate builds his own race vehicle, the Hannibal Twin-8, complete with hidden devices of sabotage. Others enter cars in the race, including New York City's most prominent newspaper. Driving the newspaper's car is beautiful photojournalist Maggie DuBois (Natalie Wood), a vocal suffragette.