History Film / DeathRace

* OhCrap: Plenty of these scattered around. Two of the biggest in the first film are [[spoiler:14K about to be blown up by the Juggernaut's tank cannon and Henessey noticing that the bomb she ordered attached to the "Monster" is about to explode in her face]].

* BigBadassRig: [[TheDreadedDreadnought The Dreadnought]]. Joker and Nero drive absolutely massive trucks in ''3'', with a tank turret and an Anti-Air cannon as their respective weapons.

* SerialEscalation: The prisons become increasingly worse as the series goes on, from not being seemingly different from modern-day prisons except for the {{Deadly Game}}s (Terminal Island Prison of ''Death Race'' 1&2) to HellholePrison placed in [[DeadlyEnvironmentPrison the middle of the Kalahari Desert]] (''Inferno'') to UrbanHellscape in the vein of ''Film/EscapeFromNewYork'' (The Sprawl of ''Beyond Anarchy'').

* ExplosiveLeash: How do you keep the prisoners from using their crazy cars to escape? Rig them to explode if they try! In the third movie the race has no boundaries, but straying off the intended course gets you an up-close and personal encounter with a heatseaking missile.

* DeathBySex: Jensen's wife is killed right as she gets out a beer and tells him they should "get crazy".

* MoreDakka: Most of the problems presented at the Death Race are solved by unloading as many rounds of ammunition at them as possible.

** Also, during the ending of 2, Frank uses CallBack phrases towards Katrina, all but confirming point blank he is [[ spoiler: Carl Lucas]], Lists and Goldberg also suspect this, but, by the third movie, they act shocked and surprised when his mask is knocked off, revealing his identity to them, which they should already know because of the end of 2.

* SeductionProofMarriage: Due to his relationship with Santana, Luke doesn't sleep with Amber when she's sent over specifically to have sex with him in the third film.

** Also, during the ending of 2, Frank uses CallBack phrases towards Santana, all but confirming point blank he is [[ spoiler: Carl Lucas]], Lists and Goldberg also suspect this, but, by the third movie, they act shocked and surprised when his mask is knocked off, revealing his identity to them, which they should already know because of the end of 2.

A DirectToVideo prequel, ''Death Race 2: Frankenstein Lives'' was released in 2010, and a DTV sequel ''to'' the prequel, ''Death Race 3: Inferno'' was released in 2013. The prequels follow Carl "Luke" Lucas (Luke Goss), a bookie and bank robber who becomes Death Race's first champion and the original Frankenstein. Most recently, an ''actual'' sequel to the 2008 film, ''Death Race: Beyond Anarchy'', picks up the story some years after Jensen's tenure as Frankenstein.

* GameShow: A particularly lethal one at that, with a clever mechanic to simulate the collection of power-ups that are seen in some racing video games.

* SequelGoesForeign: ''Death Race 3: Inferno'' takes place in South Africa, especially around the Kalahari Desert, while all other films in the series take place in Terminal Island someplace in the United States. This is an InvokedTrope by Miles York as well, who wanted to make a change to the Death Race in order to keep it fresh and bring more viewers, with the Kalahari race being a test for more international Death Races.

%%* AnAssKickingChristmas

For the Creator/RoosterTeeth-created [[NamesTheSame web series of the same name]], see the page for its parent series ''WebAnimation/DeathBattle''

** Creator/RobinShou had previously survived a [[Film/MortalKombatTheovie tournament to the death]].

* WhatYouAreInTheDark: Brought up when Case asks Jensen what he's in for; when he mentions the story that he killed his wife, Case makes it clear that she doesn't believe that because no man who killed his wife could look at his daughter's photo the way Jensen does.

* EvilCannotComprehendGood: Hennessy often seems to underestimate exactly how far Jensen is willing to push himself for the sake of his daughter, trying to convince him that other people might be better parents for the girl without recognising that he loves her enough to try to be better.

* {{Plot Hole}}: In Death Race 2, Lists tells Carl Lucas about 14K and some of the other prisoners much like he did with Jensen in the first movie. This makes no sense, because he was seen being transported to the prison on the same bus as Carl, meaning Lists shouldn’t know any of that information.

* UndercoverCopReveal: [[spoiler:Connor] and [[spoiler:Gipsy Rose]] in the fourth movie.

** In the second movie its unclear if Sheikh and Apache's navigators survived or not. Sheikh's car crashed messily after he was killed, but it was still in one piece and not in flames, and Apache survived his car rolling over before he got run down anyway, so his navigator might have to.

** Creator/RobinShou had previously survived a [[Film/MortalKombat tournament to the death]].