The episode begins at Tails' Workshop, where Tails is making repairs to his plane. Knuckles tells Tails to hurry up before he and his friends realize that sky-diving over a volcano is a bad idea, resulting in a bolt breaking. Tails then decides to use his latest invention, the Build-it Box, to make a new bolt. Sticks believes the invention to be a portal to a parallel dimension of bolt people, but Tails informs her that the Build-it Box uses 3D modelling to replicate everyday objects. Amy tells Tails that he can create more than just tiny bolts with the Build-it Box, and so Tails makes a bigger bolt with it. Knuckles is unimpressed, and suggests making cooler things, like cars, pizza ovens, or even giant bolts. Tails tells Knuckles that he would need a bigger Build-it Box to make a car or a pizza oven, which he doesn't have, so Sonic suggests that he build a bigger Build-it Box (or at least he tries to before he gets tongue-tied).
20,000 refill cartridges later, Tails builds the bigger Build-it Box. Knuckles suggests using it to create the world's biggest bolt, until Amy reminds him of his previous suggestions of a pizza oven and a car. This gives Knuckles the idea to make a car with a built-in pizza oven. Tails tells his friends that if they're going to build cars, they should be multi-functional. Knuckles, Amy, Sticks, and Sonic all have their own ideas on what the car should have, resulting in a strange-looking vehicle. Sonic then decides that he and his friends should each make their own car.
Sonic's creates the Sonic Speedster, the fastest race car there is, Knuckles creates a monster truck with wheels on the roof and a built-in pizza oven, Tails creates an all-terrain vehicle, Amy creates a pink convertible with her hammer built in, and Sticks creates a stealth vehicle. After their cars are created, Sonic and his friends argue over which car is truly the best. They then decide to have a race to determine it. The race is about to begin, when Mayor Fink asks Sonic and his friends what they're doing. Sonic explains to him that they're about to have a race, but Mayor Fink tells them that if they want to race on a public road, the race has to be an official event open to any and all racers. He tells them that not everything that goes on in Hedgehog Village is about them, but Knuckles doesn't feel the same way. Sonic reluctantly agrees to get a permit, hoping it won't take too long.
Eight months later, the permits are issued and the race, now hosted by Soar the Eagle, is about to begin. In addition to Sonic and his friends, the other racers include Leroy the Turtle in his cargocycle and Dave the Intern in his Meh Burger delivery car. Sonic is determined to win the race, when Dr. Eggman flies in with the Egg Mobile. Amy tells Eggman that this race is for cars, and he can't join since the Egg Mobile doesn't have wheels. Eggman then has Orbot and Cubot bring in a car chassis for him to set his Eggmobile in. Soar then explains the rules of the race (or lack thereof), and Mayor Fink waves the checkered flag. Everyone runs to their cars (with Sonic of course, being the first one), and the race begins. The One-Percenters watch the race from inside a tower, which gets knocked down by T.W. Barker's car when it slips on Dave's ketchup slick.
As the race continues, Sonic asks Knuckles how his tail-wind tastes. Knuckles tells him that it doesn't taste as good as the pizza from his car's built-in oven. Sticks then catches up to Amy and yells at her, to which Amy reminds her that yelling defeats the purpose of her car's camoflauge. Eggman then races past them, Tails, and Knuckles, and tries to stop Sonic by firing a missile at a tree, causing it to fall over. Sonic and Eggman both race past the fallen tree, Knuckles runs over it, and Tails jumps over it. Amy then uses her hammer to destroy the fallen tree, allowing her, Sticks, and Dave to get past it.
As Sonic passes by a tree, he wonders if he should have sacrificed a little bit of his speed for better handling, then decides against it because he really wants to win the race. Eggman, Knuckles, Tails, Amy and Sticks all then pass by the tree, which Dave honks his horn at. This tree is revealed to be the Chamelon in disguise, who reveals a secret passage for Dave to travel through.
Meanwhile, Eggman tries to stop Knuckles by laying down a spike strip. This causes Knuckles' car to spin out of control, until it lands on its roof. Knuckles then says he knew that putting tires on the roof was a smart idea, just before he drives into a tree, putting his car out of commission. Dave reaches the other side of the secret passage and manages to overtake Sonic, much to the latter's bewilderment. Sonic then catches up to Dave and knocks him off the road, destroying his car and leaving him in a puddle of mustard. Eggman, Sticks, Tails, and Amy all drive over the mustard puddle, squirting Dave.
Amy catches up to Sticks and tries to pop her car's tires with her car's spikes. Unfortunately, the spikes get stuck, causing both cars to spin out of control and into a tree. Tails then switches his car to ski mode to ski over a ramp. He then switches to landing gear, but his car bounces and spins out of control. Tails then flies out of his car, and Soar, who has caught up to him, questions why a fox like Tails can fly when a bird like him needs to use a jet pack.
In the canyon, Sonic has difficulty getting across turns, allowing Eggman to overtake him. Eggman then fires a missile at the Sonic Speedster, causing Sonic to lose control and drive into a bush. With him the only racer left, Eggman stops the Eggmobile mere feet away from the finish line and does victory poses.
Tails, Knuckles, Amy, and Sticks all catch up to Sonic, whose car is now destroyed, just like theirs. Tails, Knuckles, Amy, and Sticks all realize that thanks to their competitive nature, they took the race too seriously, and now none of them are going to win it. Knowing Eggman, Tails correctly guesses that Eggman's so confident he's going to win, that he's going to goof off before he reaches the finish line. Tails then decides that if they could make repairs to the Sonic Speedster, they'd still have a chance to beat Eggman, and all they need for this are a few parts. Sonic then runs over to Tails, Knuckles, Amy, and Sticks' cars and gathers pieces from them.
Just as Tails predicted, Eggman continues walking slowly towards the finish line, allowing Tails to make the repairs to the Sonic Speedster. Eggman then decides to get lunch from Meh Burger, not wanting to win against Sonic on an empty stomach. As he does this, Sonic uses Amy's hammer to smash the rocks in his way, and Sticks' camouflage to hide the Sonic Speedster. When he catches up to Eggman, however, Eggman sees through the disguise, and the Sonic Speedster jumps over him. After Soar comments on how the winner may or may not be a foregone conclusion after all depending on your knowledge of story structure, Eggman and Sonic race face-to-face. Eggman tells Sonic that thanks to his friends' special features, his car's weighed down, but then Sonic reveals the Sonic Speedster's special feature; a set of bike pedals. This allows Sonic to increase the speed of the Sonic Speedster, allowing it to overtake the Egg Mobile and win the race.
Mayor Fink awards Sonic a trophy for winning the race, but then Sonic reads "Everyone's a winner who tries their best" engraved on the trophy. He then sees that Mayor Fink has awarded every other racer a trophy, realizing they're all participation trophies, making the race pointless. However, this doesn't stop Eggman from gloating over his trophy.
This episode provides examples of:
- Awesome, but Impractical: Knuckles designs his truck to have wheels on the roof as well, so that if it flips over, it can still move onward as seen at one point during the race. However, it becomes much harder to steer while the driver is upside down, and Knuckles crashes almost immediately.
- The Big Race: This episode revolves around a race between the five members of Team Sonic, some of the villagers, and Eggman, all in their own vehicles.
- Brick Joke: When the race begins, everyone quickly gets to their cars, except for Leroy the Turtle, who's predictably not a very fast runner. In fact, by the time the race ends, he's only just getting onto his vehicle.
- Call-Back: Despite being created in this episode, the Sonic Speedster, and Amy's ride were last seen in "Mister Eggman", while Knuckles's truck was last seen in "Three Men and My Baby". This is because the episodes originally aired out of production order (this episode came before the others). Any contradictions in the timeline are possibly Handwaved by Soar mentioning it took 8 months to get the permits for the race.
- Cheaters Never Prosper: Dave has a friend provide him a shortcut to get ahead of the other racers. Despite this, Sonic is still able to knock Dave out of the race and win.
- Creation Sequence: Occurs when Team Sonic are thinking up designs for their own cars with the help of Tails' laptop – complimented wonderfully by Knight Rider-esque background music.
- Foregone Conclusion: Sonic still manages to win the race despite the odds against him. Lampshaded by Soar:Soar: Looks like the winner isn't a foregone conclusion after all! Or maybe it is, depending on your knowledge of story structure.
- Sonic is also the first one to run into and get in his car when the race starts thanks to his Super-Speed. Once again lampshaded by Soar.
Soar: Sonic takes an early lead! And in other unsurprising news, grass is green, winter is cold, and my ex-wife is taking the beach house. - Franken-vehicle: When Eggman damages Sonic's car, Tails repairs it using parts from all of Team Sonic's other damaged cars (Sticks' body, Tails' chassis, Knuckles' wheels, and Amy's hammer).
- Go-Karting with Bowser: Perhaps a literal example: Team Sonic and some of the villagers race alongside Dr. Eggman, Dave the Intern, and T.W. Barker.
- Hope Spot:
- Tails switches his vehicle to use skis to help him jump over a ramp and then he switches back to wheels for landing. For a second, it looks like all is going well but then Tails ends up bouncing out of control and crashing.
- A similar thing happens to Knuckles. His tires get blown out for driving over Eggman's spike strip. His car flips over to ride on his roof tires, apparently saving himself. Unfortunately, this doesn't last long. Knuckles ends up losing control and crashing into a tree seconds later anyway.
- Leaning on the Fourth Wall: When Mayor Fink is scolding the team for their impromptu race, he tells them that not everything revolves around them. Knuckles responds that it kinda feels like it does.
- Military Salute: Sonic opens his car roof and gives this to the crowd of cheering villagers upon winning the race.
- Mythology Gag: The Egg Mobile merges with a car-like vehicle that can't be driven without it, similar to the first boss of Sonic the Hedgehog 2, the Egg Mobile-D.
- Porky Pig Pronunciation: Tails uses his Build-it Box to create a bolt, but the others, knowing the device could make anything, suggest that he could make a car with it. He explains that the Box is too small for that, and Sonic tells him to build a bigger Build-it Box... or at least tries to, but gets his tongue twisted.Sonic: Use this to build a bigger back-baggit-bot-build a begger- er, big-bugger-back-baggit-box-begger-buzzer...(shakes head) th-the answer is simple, but saying it, not so much.
- Rings of Activation: To beat Eggman, Sonic uses a pedal-powered boost function. We see a visual of Sonic's car engine surrounded by white rings of energy and the car itself is encased in a blue force field surrounded by similar white rings.
- Roadside Wave: After Dave's car skids off the road, he lands near a puddle of his own mustard, which the other racers drive over and spray him with, leading to this line:Dave: Hey, I didn't order this! Now I know how every one of our customers feels all the time.
- The Runt at the End: When the race begins, all the racers run to their cars. Leroy, being a turtle, isn't a fast runner, and trails behind the other racers.
- Russian Reversal: Soar provides an excellent one when Tails' vehicle gets the booting:Soar: Anyone else find it strange that the fox can fly but the bird needs to use a jet-pack?
- Surprisingly Realistic Outcome: Sonic and his friends are about to begin their own personal race, until Mayor Fink stops them and tells them that in order to race on a public road, the race must be an official event open to any and all racers. They also learn that setting up such a public event is not a quick and easy process as it takes eight months to get everything organized and funded.
- Time Skip: Eight months pass between the decision to make the race official and the actual race day.
- Wings Do Nothing: Lampshaded by Soar the Eagle.Anyone find it strange that the fox can fly but the bird needs to use a jet pack?
