David Carradine, who starred in the original film, La Course à la mort de l'an 2000 (1975), played the voice of Frankenstein in the opening scene of this film.
Joan Allen was the first choice to play Claire Hennessey, the female warden of Terminal Island. Much to writer and director Paul W.S. Anderson's surprise, Allen was just as keen to take the part, wanting to shake up her image at the time.
A total of 34 cars were used in the film. They were constantly repaired by a team of 85 mechanics.
Originally, this film was going to be a sequel to the original film, La Course à la mort de l'an 2000 (1975), it was going to be titled Death Race 3000, and it was going to be a race around the world with futuristic hovering, invisible and transforming cars, but everything about it had to be rewritten due to production costs.
Jason Statham trained so hard for his role in the film that he went from 20% body fat to 6%. It took him three months to do so.