History WesternAnimation / WackyRaces

-->'''Peter:''' You know what my mother said when I was but a lad?\\

* ScavengerHunt: Gold Key Comics issue #7, "The Scavenger Scramble," had the racers looking for the following items: a "real gone" muffler, a drop of dirty motor oil on the left palm, a strip of torn-off tire tread, and a parking ticket. Penelope is first to finish but is disqualified because the muffler she obtained was a colorful scarf, not a beat-up exhaust pipe as per rules. That gave Dick Dastardly the victory.

* ScavengerHunt: Gold Key Comics issue #7, "The Scavenger Scramble," had the racers looking for the following items: a "real gone" muffler, a drop of dirty motor oil on the left palm, a strip of torn-off tire tread, and a parking ticket. Penelope is first to finish but is disqualified because the muffler she obtained was a colorful scark, not a beat-up exhaust pipe as per rules. That gave Dick Dastardly the victory.

* ScavengerHunt: Gold Key Comics issue #7, "The Scavenger Scramble," had the racers looking for. The following items: a "real gone" muffler, a drop of dirty motor oil on the left palm, a strip of torn-off tire tread, and a parking ticket. Penelope is first to finish but is disqualified because the muffler she obtained was a colorful scark, not a beat-up exhaust pipe as per rules. That gave Dick Dastardly the victory.

* DubNameChange: The show had its name changed to Fartdårarna (literally meaning The Speed Freaks) in the Swedish dub. Also several characters had their names changed as well in order to keep their PunnyName's. Dick Dastardly for instance became Urban Usling.[[note]]"Urban" is a common Swedish name with a slightly harsh sound to it, while "Usling" generally means scumbag or something to that effect.[[/note]] Interestingly, he kept his English name for ''WesternAnimation/DastardlyAndMuttleyInTheirFlyingMachines''.

*** Issue #7 featured two stories that were not episode adaptations, "The Scavenger Scramble" and "The San Diego Go-Go." In the second story, Dastardly uses a "time treadmill" to send the racers back to that days of the Aztecs. Sarge and Meekly unwittingly help Spanish conquistadors raid an Aztec village for their gold caches.

*** Issue #7 featured two stories that were not episode adaptations, "The Scavenger Scramble" and "The San Diego Go-Go."

*** #4 - "Beat The Clock Through Yellowrock" (the TV episode used "''To'' Yellowrock"). The second story was an original, "Follow Through to Yoo-Hoo."

* FreezeRay: Near the end of "Why O Why Wyoming", Professor Pat Pending uses one to freeze the Creepy Coupe when their dragon breathes fire as a means of propulsion. This resulted in the Creepy Coupe using the ice block they get trapped in to slip into the lead and win the race.

-->'''Dastardly'''(''to Muttley''): And remember...you're not plucking a chicken!

* BrokenWinLossRecord: Subverted with Dick Dastardly who has a perfect 0-34 record in this series.

* AffectionateParody:
** By ''WesternAnimation/DextersLaboratory'', in the episode "Dexter's Wacky Races". They even use Hoyt Curtin's BackgroundMusic from ''Wacky Races'' as well as Ted Nichols' music from ''Motormouse and Autocat'' and ''WesternAnimation/ThePerilsOfPenelopePitstop''.
** One segment of ''WesternAnimation/ThePowerpuffGirls Rule'' also counts.
** There's also one episode of the old Gundam OVA series.
** ''WesternAnimation/SouthPark'' even gets in the act in the episode "Handicar." The racers are mainly comprised of some of the episode's characters, but they even throw in Dick Dastardly and Muttley as well (both looking long in the tooth after 45-plus years).
** The ''Anime/TimeBokan: Royal Revival'' OVA pitted its series' villains against one another for the ultimate prize of starring in the next series of the franchise.
** ''Anime/AppareRanman'': a whole plot borrowing, with a Trans-America race filled with ''Wacky Racers''-inspired cars.

* MeaninglessVillainVictory: The big prize in "The Scavenger Scramble" comic book story is announced as a big purse (normally a substantial cash award). Dick Dastardly wins and gets the prize--a big flowery ladies' purse.

* ShoutOut: At the end of "Eeny, Miny Missouri Go!", the Mean Machine is reduced to a set of rotatory wings and a rope. When Dastardly and Muttley are seen using them, the Narrator asks ''[[Franchise/{{Superman}} "Is that a bird? Is that a plane?"]]'' before realizing it's Dastardly.

* TheBigRace: True to the show's title, the series is always about the characters competing in races.

* GogglesDoNothing: Peter Perfect, Penelope Pitstop, Sawtooth, and Dick Dastardly all have headgear with goggles that never cover their eyes. Red Max occasionally will have his goggles over his eyes.

* AllStereotypeCast: Features a couple of stereotypical cavemen, a RedBaron expy, a couple of army stereotypes, a mob of stereotypical gangsters, a supergenius scientist inventor, a macho hero with LanternJawofJustice, a lazy hillbilly with a pet bear, a stereotype lumberjack with a pet beaver, TheChick who is a GirlyGirl obsessed with her looks, and a DastardlyWhiplash-style villain.

* LoadsAndLoadsOfCharacters: The series has a total of 23 characters.

** If you just count the winner as "the racer who came in first the most consistently", then Luke & Blubber Bear also count, since their steam-powered Arkansas Chugga-bug came in 1st place 4 times, matching up with the far more advanced Bullet Proof Bomb (Ant Hill Mob), Compact Pussycat (Penelope Perfect) Turbo Terrific (Peter Perfect). Ironically, by the official [=NASCAR=] race scoring formula, the Arkansas Chugga-bug comes in ''dead last'', since, outside of those four first place finishes, it tends to consistently be one of the last cars across the finish line. Not counting Dick Dastardly, of course.\
*** If you count just the number of wins overall just behind the Slag Brothers is the Buzz Wagon, which is a small car made of just wood and having just Buzzsaws for wheels. Like the Boulder Mobile, The Buzz Wagon consistently places 2nd to 3rd place with at least a few 1st place wins in its own belt.

* MoralDissonance: Dick Dastardly set a lot of traps, yeah, but if the ''other'' contestants used their cars' special abilities (one was a tank, one had buzzsaws for wheels, one had a dragon in it, one was an airplane, one could turn into any type of vehicle its driver could imagine, etc.) to gain an advantage or even disable or destroy the other vehicles, nobody even batted an eye. Only Dick was considered to be cheating.