History YMMV / DaytonaUSA

* {{Misblamed}}: Following the release of ''Battle on the Edge'', it was falsely believed that the game's soundtrack was composed and performed entirely by Music/{{Winger}}. Reb Beach and Rod Morgenstein provided guitars and drums respectively to certain songs, but the soundtrack as a whole was composed by Takenobu Mitsuyoshi and Fumio Ito of Sega's internal sound team.

** Not so much [[GratuitousEnglish Engrish]] as overly descriptive lyrics: ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wWnzfA9AqrA This is your crew chief! The course is really tough, but it's a beautiful day, so good luck!]]''
%% The previous link is no longer available, so the link has been replaced with a backup. In case THAT one goes down, use this one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hTvTVIVBpUg (a different cover that lacks subtitles).

* AuthorsSavingThrow: Adding an optional 4-way transmission to ''Championship USA'' cabinets shortly before launch did soothe a few ruffled feathers, [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks which was a main point of concern before the official launch]]. Not all machines carry this feature, however.

** One of the cars in ''2001'', Lightning, eerily resembles an [=A80=] Toyota Supra. In late 2010s, Toyota put the DB-series Supra into NASCAR for real, even before the production model closed the 18-year SequelGap of the nameplate.

* GameplayDerailment: The original ''Daytona USA'' let you powerslide through corners through strategic gear-shifting. ''Daytona USA 2'' suggests that this wasn't the intended purpose of the shifter, as attempting the same technique on it will result in a spinout instead, although ''Power Edition'' allows you to do it again in the Hornet car due to a GrandfatherClause.

** Seeing complex road circuits in featured in this game can be amusing since at the time, UsefulNotes/{{NASCAR}} didn't feature these very often. However, in UsefulNotes/TheNewTens, NASCAR started adding more road races to the lineup that weren't far off from what the game features, such as returning to Elkhart Lake: Road America, and utilizing the complete course at Sonoma Raceway. The real-life Daytona Road Course is pretty similar in concept to the intermediate circuit in the first game.

** Seeing complex road circuits in featured in this game can be amusing since at the time, UsefulNotes/{{NASCAR}} didn't feature these very often. However, in UsefulNotes/TheNewTens, NASCAR started adding more road races to the lineup that weren't far off from what the game features, such as returning to Elkhart Lake: Road America, and utilizing the complete course at Sonoma Raceway.

** The UsefulNotes/SegaSaturn port captured the fun and music from the arcade game, but not the graphics. Hardly a "disaster" but it wasn't the best effort either. The developers sought out to fix this with the ''Championship Circuit Edition'' released later.

* SugarWiki/NoProblemWithLicensedGames: Quite possibly one of the most iconic examples for arcade games. There are even eight arcade cabinets in the Daytona 500 Experience museum. ''SCUD Race'' takes it a step further by using the licenses of famous supercars. ''Championship USA'' was even [[http://www.segaarcade.com/news/daytona-wins-prestigious-brass-ring-award-for-best-new-product.html awarded the IAAPA Brass Ring Award]] in 2017 for Best New Product in the Arcade & Video Games Category.

** The removal of 4-1-4 downshifting in ''USA 2'', which heavily nerfed drifting.

* GameplayDerailment: The original ''Daytona USA'' let you powerslide through corners through strategic gear-shifting. ''Daytona USA 2'' suggests that this wasn't the intended purpose of the shifter, as attempting the same technique on it will result in a spinout instead, although ''Power Edition'' allows you to do it again in the Hornet car.

** ''2001''. Aside from the control issue mentioned below, the graphics and draw distance have been tremendously improved, up to 40 opponents can be raced on all courses with no slowdown, and includes eight courses with four variants each (normal, reverse, mirror, and mirror reverse), making it the biggest game in the series.

** ''2001'' had bizarrely touchy control, something brought up in nearly every review of the game. Aside from that, it nailed down every other aspect of classic ''Daytona'', but the game is tough enough without having to battle the controls.

** Seeing complex road circuits in featured in this game can be amusing since at the time, UsefulNotes/NASCAR didn't feature these very often. However, in UsefulNotes/TheNewTens, NASCAR started adding more road races to the lineup that weren't far off from what the game features, such as returning to Elkhart Lake: Road America, and utilizing the complete course at Sonoma Raceway.

* [[Awesome/VideoGameLevels Best Level Ever]]: ''SEGA Super GT'' manages to turn an EasierThanEasy course into one: The Super Beginner course takes place inside a ''house'' and your opponents are all various toys. And there's a bowling minigame on the back straight.

** The above ''Daytona USA''/''Ridge Racer'' rivalry from the 90s became this with the UsefulNotes/{{PlayStation Vita}} ''Ridge Racer'' installment, where [[GuestFighter the Hornet would join the races]] ([[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zcPKS4XxZNQ accompanied by Mitsuyoshi's vocals, even!]]) [[DownloadableContent as part of]] a Sega/Namco {{c|rossover}}ollaboration.

* [[PortingDisaster Porting Fender Bender]]:

* MostAnnoyingSound:
** "Try to go easy on the car!"
** "Guard that rear bumper!"
** '''[[JumpScare (CRASH)]]''' "You're all over the track! Let's see some control!" / "Are you all right?"
** "Careful! You'll melt the tires!" Which makes little sense given that powersliding is ''the whole point of competitive play''.
** "Watch that red line on the tach!"

* AuthorsSavingThrow: Adding an optional 4-way transmission to ''Championship USA'' cabinets shortly before launch did sooth a few ruffled feathers, [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks which was a main point of concern before the official launch]]. Not all machines carry this feature, however.

* SugarWiki/NoProblemWithLicensedGames: Quite possibly one of the most iconic examples for arcade games. There are even eight arcade cabinets in Daytona 500 Experience museum. ''SCUD Race'' takes it a step further by using the licenses of famous supercars. ''Championship USA'' was even [[http://www.segaarcade.com/news/daytona-wins-prestigious-brass-ring-award-for-best-new-product.html awarded the IAAPA Brass Ring Award]] in 2017 for Best New Product in the Arcade & Video Games Category.
* OlderThanTheyThink: ''Daytona USA'' is one of the first racing games to implement realistic driving physics, which makes the game [[NintendoHard more difficult]] compared to other racing games at that time. The drifting mechanic was also somewhat realistic at that time, giving players who don't know powerslides a hard time. This physics technology was later used in many racing simulators like ''VideoGame/GranTurismo''.

** The UsefulNotes/Xbox360 and UsefulNotes/PlayStation3 ports of the original are easily the most arcade perfect. Not only featuring perfect recreations of the the original gameplay experience and soundtrack as well as the original graphics with HD textures and [=HUD=] elements retaining the original art style, but also adding various enhancements like widescreen, a mission mode, an optional arranged soundtrack, a karaoke mode (carried over from the original Saturn port), support for force feedback steering wheels allowing for arcade perfect controls, and online multiplayer!

* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: ''No one'' should be surprised it [[AwesomeMusic/DaytonaUSA has its own page]].

* EarWorm: ''Every'' song in the first game.
** ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qDFRTgaovmQ Rolling Staaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrt!!!!]]'' [[MemeticMutation So much that]] [[RefrainFromAssuming it might as well be the song's actual title]].
** ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a14tqUAswZU I WANNA FLYYYYYY, SKY HIIIIIGH! LET'S GOOOOO TOGETHERRRRRRR!]]''
** ''[[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2_zAxPqKa8Y DaayyyTONAAAAAAA! Let's go away!]]''

* InternetBackdraft:
** Longtime fans of the series have been very vocal in their disappointment in ''Daytona Championship USA'' and Sega for misleading advertising. Originally titled ''Daytona 3 Championship USA'', the game was advertised as a brand new title and the long-awaited sequel to 1998's ''Daytona USA 2'', which was to feature brand new courses including remastered versions of the original three tracks. Once playtesting footage surfaced, it became apparent the game was actually ''another'' remastered version of the original game with a graphical facelift, but with a different interface and altered controls. The three "new courses" simply turned out to be re-skinned versions of the original three, with two of them having a mirrored track layout. Due to the negative feedback, the "3" was quickly removed from the title, and they offered an optional 4-way gear shift for some machines shortly before the game's official launch.
** Not helping the backlash was that [[http://www.seganerds.com/2017/12/30/daytona-championship-usa-might-have-just-been-released-online-by-sega/ the entire game was accidentally leaked online]] by Sega themselves as part of an update for arcade vendors to download from their website. The game's detractors had a field day with this, leading them to further question the competency of Sega and those involved with the game's development.

* AuthorsSavingThrow: Adding an optional 4-way transmission to ''Championship USA'' cabinets shortly before launch did sooth a few ruffled feathers, [[TheyChangedItNowItSucks which was a main point of concern before the official launch]].

** Longtime fans of the series have been very vocal in their disappointment in ''Daytona Championship USA'' and Sega for misleading advertising. Originally titled ''Daytona 3 Championship USA'', the game was advertised as a brand new title and the long-awaited sequel to 1998's ''Daytona USA 2'', which was to feature brand new courses including remastered versions of the original three tracks. Once playtesting footage surfaced, it became apparent the game was actually ''another'' remastered version of the original game with a graphical facelift, but with a different interface and altered controls. The three "new courses" simply turned out to be re-skinned versions of the original three, with two of them having a mirrored track layout. Due to the negative feedback, the "3" was quickly removed from the title, and the 4-way gear shift was added back in shortly before the game's official launch.

** One of the biggest downgrades of ''Daytona Championship USA'' was changing the series-traditional 4-position shifter and replacing it with a simplified up/down shifter. Given that many powersliding techniques rely on shifting down two or three gears at once, this is basically a screw-you to well-versed ''Daytona USA'' players. Thankfully Sega listened and added it back in before the game's official release.

** Crosses over with RealLife: ''Scud Race'' was [[MarketBasedTitle renamed]] ''Sega Super GT'' for US cabinets. Years later, Sega published ''Sega Touring Car Championship'' and later ''Sega GT'', another two (more realistic for latter) driving games with licensed cars (JGTC and DTM cars for former). And years later in Japan, the Japanese Grand Touring Championships (JGTC) was renamed ''Super GT'', making the US renaming of ''Scud Race'' even more hilarious.