Michael Bannon, a wealthy but bored businessman and candymaker, issues the code word "Gumball" to his fellow automobile enthusiasts, who gather in a garage in New York City to embark on a coast-to-coast race "with no catalytic converter and no 55-mile-per-hour speed limit" in the shortest amount of time.

Their longtime nemesis, Los Angeles Police Department Lieutenant Roscoe, who has been trying for years to arrest Bannon and his group, has flown in specially to attempt to shut down the race.

A number of running gags ensue – the Jaguar that will not start (and never even makes it off the starting line); the silent (and somewhat-psychotic) motorcyclist Lapchik's numerous mishaps; Italian race driver Franco Bertollini's frequent detours to seduce beautiful women – as well as some stunts and driving sequences, including the first moving car into moving tractor-trailer stunt later to become a trademark of Knight Rider, the typical sequence of workers carrying a large glass window only to have it shattered by a speeding vehicle, and a race in the Los Angeles River at the same location where Greased Lightning would defeat the Scorpions' Mercury in Grease.

Opening scenes of the race were filmed in downtown New York City early on a Sunday morning on closed roads (including Broadway and Park Avenue).

The final duel between the Cobra and Ferrari was filmed at (and in) the Los Angeles River and the closing scene was shot at the Queen Mary in Long Beach.