The film stars four alumni of SCTV: John Candy, Eugene Levy, Joe Flaherty and Don Lake.

The cast also includes Donna Dixon, Matt Frewer, Tim Matheson, Mimi Kuzyk, Melody Anderson, Shari Belafonte, Dick and Tom Smothers, Peter Boyle, Alyssa Milano, John Schneider, Brooke Shields, Michael Spinks, Lee Van Cleef, Harvey Atkin, Brian George, Art Hindle, Louis Del Grande, Carl Lewis and Richard Petty.

An assortment of people gather at a countryside inn in preparation for the infamous "Cannonball Run," an illegal three-day cross-country race from Washington, D.C. to Santa Monica where the winner and five runners-up will receive $1 million.

However, the hot-headed Washington Chief of Police, Spiro T. Edsel, along with his long-suffering sidekick Whitman, arrest all of the drivers to prevent the race from happening.

Vic DeRubis is a hitman-for-hire sent to kill Alec Stewart, an English deadbeat and compulsive gambler who has squandered money that he borrowed from a loan shark, Big Wally.

When the driver of the Lamborghini is arrested, a skittish Italian mechanic, Valentino Rosatti, is forced to drive it, but Flash, a former policeman who wants the money for his own reasons, takes the wheel.

Nelson and Randolph Van Sloan, two millionaires and the only drivers not arrested in the police sweep, enter in a Bentley Corniche convertible.

Charlie and Tiffany driving the BMW finish third, Lee and Margaret fourth, Heather and Jack fifth, Flash and Valentino sixth, with the Van Sloan brothers coming in last while riding on roller skis.

Lee Van Cleef, in one of his final appearances, is in the same scene playing an old man teaching his grandson how to skip stones on a pond as the Lamborghini drives past.

In Japan, the film was released on laserdisc by Towa-Pioneer and packaged as The Cannonball Run III: Speed Zone.