Smokey Bites the Dust is a 1981 car chase film from New World Pictures directed by Charles B. Griffith.

The stock plot deals with Roscoe Wilton, a teenage joyriding car thief, evading Cyco County Sheriff Turner and his unintelligent deputies.

Turner becomes even more obsessed with catching Roscoe after he kidnaps his overly-sheltered daughter, Peggy Sue, just as she is about to be crowned homecoming Queen during a football game at their high school.

Charles B. Griffith had made a popular film for Roger Corman's New World Pictures called Eat My Dust!

Corman wanted Griffith to make a follow-up called Car Wars using stunt footage from five old New World films.