The film centers on six teams of people who are given the task of racing 563 miles (906 km) from a Las Vegas casino to a Silver City, New Mexico, train station where a storage locker contains a duffel bag filled with $2 million.
Eccentric hotel tycoon Donald Sinclair devises a game to entertain the high rollers who visit his Las Vegas casino.
The racers consist of brothers Duane and Blaine Cody, businesswoman Merrill Jennings and her mother Vera, disgraced football referee Owen Templeton, Randy Pear and his family, narcoleptic Italian tourist Enrico Pollini and no-nonsense attorney Nick Schaffer.
Later, after Blaine is distracted by two attractive women driving beside them on the road, they veer off of it and their rental car is crushed by a monster truck, which they steal to get to Silver City.
Merrill and Vera are given malicious directions by a woman selling squirrels as pets on the side of the road, and crash into a pile of other totaled vehicles containing her previous deceased victims.
Left disoriented due to the car's extreme speed, they then accidentally stumble onto a busload of mental patients headed for Silver City.
Now without most of his clothes or other belongings, he then dupes and impersonates the driver of a bus on the way to transport a large group of Lucille Ball cosplayers to a convention, much to his dismay.
After the family (who are Jewish) awkwardly leave the museum, they steal Adolf Hitler's staff car after Duane and Blaine sabotage their mini-van.
While driving the staff car, the family is attacked by an all-female biker gang and Randy, who burns his tongue after the dashboard cigarette lighter accidentally ejects directly into his mouth, drives them into a large gathering honoring World War II veterans, unaware of how his slurred speech and disheveled appearance insults them.
Later at a diner when his family insist they end the trip, Randy drugs them by slipping sleeping pills into their milkshakes and bundles them into a semi-truck heading for Silver City.
Nick chooses not to participate, but changes his mind when he meets Tracy Faucet, an independent pilot who gives him a lift in her helicopter.
Now having damaged her helicopter and with police on the way to arrest them, she and Nick steal her ex-boyfriend's truck together and form a romantic relationship while driving to Silver City.
However, Enrico escapes by jumping onto a passing train, where he drops his locker key in a baby's diaper and, while retrieving it, is mistaken for a pedophile by the parents.
The racers chase the balloon to a charity concert where Smash Mouth are performing, and the band and crowd mistake the money for a donation.
[4] In August 1999, Jerry Zucker was in negotiations to direct the film for Paramount Pictures from a screenplay written by Andy Breckman that would be set in Las Vegas, Nevada and in New Mexico.
[14] Second unit filming began in Las Vegas on August 7, 2000, with scenes primarily involving Cuba Gooding Jr.
[16] Filming in Las Vegas concluded on September 29, 2000, and production moved to Ely, Nevada,[17] which stood in as Silver City, New Mexico.
[14] Sinclair and the gamblers' eccentric habits are further exaggerated in deleted scenes, where they partake in many more ridiculous bets, including playing Monopoly with real money.
Professional wrestler Diamond Dallas Page and his then wife, Kimberly, had a cameo that was cut when test audiences failed to give his appearance any reaction.
[30] Jo Berry of Empire gave the film three stars out of five and wrote, "Ex-Saturday Night Live writer Breckman piles on the gags for this daft chase movie.