History Film / DeathRace

* SuspiciouslySimilarSubstitute: Lucas in the prequels is this to Jensen. Doesn't make sense for Jensen (and thus Jason Statham) to be in a prequel? Just get a different white British guy with a shaved head and PermaStubble. There's a lot of key character differences, but it can't be a coincidence that they look and sound similar. Similarly, Katrina is the substitute Case

* BloodSport: The glorious, gory idea behind the Death Races themselves: a race on an island prison, where the competitors are death row inmates racing for their freedom.

** Olga in the original cut of the third movie. Razor is seen driving at her as she tries to run then her face is seen being added to the eliminated driver poll on the scorecard but he isn't actually shown hitting her and that could have just reflected the loss of her car. However, she is specifically shown to be ran over by Razor in the unrated cut.

* LesParkour: Pretty Boy puts up a decent running chase while being pursued by a missile following his tracker.

** Olga in the third movie. Razor is seen driving at her as she tries to run then her face is seen being added to the eliminated driver poll on the scorecard but he isn't actually shown hitting her and that could have just reflected the loss of her car.

* RealityEnsues: In the first film [[spoiler:Hennessey has her [[TheDragon Dragon]] wire Frankenstein's car to blow, and he does so by... ordering his pit crew out of the space during prep time and sticking a simplistic and very obvious bomb to the car's undercarriage. The car belonging to a head mechanic so attached to the vehicle he remains in prison voluntarily. How did he think it '''wouldn't''' be found and disarmed?]]

* ChekhovsGun: The cigarette lighter. First presented as a gag ("the most important part of the car") then used alongside the napalm to set a racer on fire.

** "I guess he didn't like the oatmeal either" is similar to the cornbread line in ''Film/{{Aliens}}''.

* MaleGaze: Probably would be easier to count the moments in which the navigators aren't Gainaxing from the bumpy riding or the camera makes an emphasis on the racing harness bringing up their breasts or the fact that they wear tight jeans. Unlike most examples though this one gets a stated in-universe justification: its all for the ratings.

** Robin Shou had previously survived a [[Film/MortalKombat tournament to the death]].

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.

* BroadStrokes: WordOfGid says it's a prequel to ''Death Race 2000'' and not a remake despite being set 12 years later.

* DomesticAbuser: Case implies her husband was one, leading her to kill him. Jensen is framed as one, and Coach mentions at one point that he's met "his share" of them.

* VillainBall: York grasps it with a firm hand throughout the third film, consistently trying to screw over not just Frank and crew, but every character he interacts with personally, firing both his BeleagueredAssistant and TheDragon of the film, along with Weyland, consequently, all of them team up and the film ends with them [[spoiler: mangling York so he can't be reconigzed and him becomin the new Frankenstein, just in time for the cold open of the first Death Race, in which we know he dies.]]

* 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.

* MaleGaze: Probably would be easier to count the moments in which the navigators aren't Gainaxing from the bumpy riding or the camera makes an emphasis on the racing harness bringing up their breasts or the fact that they wear tight jeans.

A much {{darker and edgier}} film than the original ''Film/DeathRace2000'', which was more of a [[BlackComedy grisly comedy]]. The 2008 version did away with everything in the original except the theme of a killer car race, the names of the two champions (Frankenstein and Machine Gun Joe) and the fact that Frankenstein was not the original, but another driver in the same mask. As a quick tribute, David Carradine, who was Frankenstein in the old film, voiced "Old Frank" in this one (for a couple of lines).