At the Daytona race before the big wreck, Cole Trickle is spun out by Rowdy Burns. Cole recovers and catches up to Rowdy. The camera pans out to show a long distance shot of Rowdy leading Cole, but the lead car is clearly the number 3 Goodwrench Chevy of Dale Earnhardt, not the 51 of Rowdy Burns. In fact the whole shot is from the 1990 Daytona 500 and the cars on second and third are Derrike Cope's Purolator Chevy and Terry Labonte's Skoal Oldsmobile.
When Harry is teaching Cole about the car and tire wear, in the first scene discussing the tires, Harry's wearing a Georgia hat. When they switch to Harry's method of tire use, Harry's wearing a Florida hat.
At the end of the Daytona 500, Cole's face is heavily blackened with oil, yet the windshield and interior of the care are spotless.
In the clip from the race at Rockingham, N.C., you can see the beginning of the sign that says "Daytona USA" on the wall.
When the cars are lined up to begin the final Daytona race, Wheeler's car is correctly in the pole position, toward the inside of the track, while Cole's car is a few rows back, on the outside. Just before the race begins, Wheeler and Cole glance at each other as though they are next to each other. In reality, they were not lined up close enough to see each other as directly as the camera angle presumes.
There are several shots of Cole Trickle's car missing the
bright yellow rookie stripe on the rear bumper. The only time the stripe is present is when Cole is at Darlington.
During the opening sequence of the movie, if you watch carefully, you will see a Busch Grand National series official inspecting a car. The Daytona 500 is a Winston Cup event.
When Rowdy gets mad that Cole is going to pass him and Rowdy says, "I'm going to put him in the wall," which would have summarily resulted in Rowdy being black flagged for the race (and probably more than one race after that), cars that are traveling at 200 miles per hour do not bounce off each other and keep going straight ahead. Cole's car, or Rowdy's car, would have hit the wall, spun off the track, flipped or rolled multiple times, smashing into a thousand pieces and taking several other cars out with them.
A transmission failure as depicted in the final race at Daytona would more than likely end Cole's race, as opposed to being an easy fix that could be resolved in less than a lap.
After the caution in the final race when Cole beats the pace car out of pit road, the race restarts with Wheeler, the leader, starting on the inside line. In reality, Wheeler's car should have been on the outside line, as lead-lap cars start on the outside and cars a lap down or more start on the inside.
In the scene where Cole and Rowdy line up at the stop light in opposite vehicles, Rowdy is in a Ford Taurus. When the light turns green, they both gun it and you see smoke coming form the tires of the Taurus. The smoke is coming from the rear tires. The Ford Taurus never came with a RWD option, they were all front wheel drive, thus the rear tires should not have smoked up.
When Cole and Claire (Tom & Nicole) are at Rowdy Burns' property and Rowdy's wife meets them as they are walking, she says "Hi Claire, I'm Ginny". She then says "Hi Tom", referring to Tom Cruise and not the actual character of Cole Trickle. (1:02:10 roughly)
After Cole sabotages Russ Wheeler's victory lap by wrecking his car, you can clearly see that the checkered flag hanging out Wheeler's window is secured in place rather than being held. It is clear from the in car camera of "Russ Wheeler" that the flag is somehow secured in place, and the window netting is still up.
During the Firecracker 400, Cole Trickle is seen passing Russ Wheeler's #18 Hardee's Chevrolet even though it does not exist yet.
During the race at Darlington where Cole gets his first win, a caution comes out with 3 laps to go after Rowdy spins out. Under NASCAR rules of the time, the race would have ended under yellow. The field would race back to the line and catch the pace car with about 2 laps to go, which would not have been enough time to allow the field to pit and then restart the race. Cole would have won this race either way, providing he stayed on track and maintained speed under caution.
At Cole's first race at Daytona, the announcer called it the Firecracker 400. The Firecracker 400 was the name of this race from 1963 to 1984. It should have been called the Pepsi 400, as it was renamed for the third time in 1989.
During the race in North Wilkesboro, North Carolina, Russ Wheeler slams Coles car into the trackside wall and he spins off, Cole can clearly be heard saying, "Son-of-a-bitch!" and yet his lips don't move.
Cole says "the accelerator is stuck" and other things without moving his lips.
When Cole is battling Russ Wheeler for the lead at Daytona you can see the camera rig attached to the camera car as they go into the turn.
In Turn 3, at the site of the big during the final race, two men are seen blowing smoke from a machine onto the racing surface.
During the crash in the final race, if you look closely you can see the camera car driving through the wreckage.
During the street race on the way to the restaurant, when the cars split to avoid the truck, where the left car mounts the high curb, a small stepped ramp can be seen.
During a wide shot of Cole celebrating his win at Daytona, at the bottom of the shot, a cameraman and crew member are visible moving the camera.
Many shots of the first race that Cole wins at a non-Daytona race clearly show the word Daytona on the walls of the track and the flagman's booth has it emblazoned on its side.
While racing at Phoenix (a flat track), footage is shown of a high banked track.
At a race set at North Wilkesboro Speedway, you can see the name Atlanta on the wall in several shots.
Before Cole and Rowdy arrive for their "dinner", Big John asked Tim, "If you can't control your race drivers any better than this..." but Rowdy isn't one of Tims' drivers.