Trivia / Daytona USA

• Blooper:
  • Daytona USA 2 features a "Live Mode", which turns a second cabinet into a live feed that spectators can watch. In Power Edition, the names for the Beginner car and track weren't updated from Battle on the Edge, so the commentator calls them the wrong names.
  • Despite being changed, the Chums Gum icon will appear for a split second if you select the beginner car in Power Edition.
• B-Team Sequel:
  • Daytona USA 2001 was developed by Genki, who also developed the Shutokou Battle games. Note that some of the cars there resemble Japanese tuner cars.
  • Contrary to reports that much of the original game's staff was also involved with Daytona Championship USA, it was instead developed by Sega's Shanghai division and headed by Sega Amusements.
• Completely Different Title: SCUD Race was renamed to Sega Super GT for the overseas market because while "SCUD" is known in Japan as standing for "Sports Car Ultimate Drive", in the West "Scud" bears unpleasant Cold War connotations.
• Content Leak: Championship USA was accidentally leaked online by Sega themselves shortly after its arcade launch. A software update was offered to arcade vendors that could be downloaded straight from Sega Amusement's website, which was intended to be put on a USB drive to use on multiple cabinets. However, the file was an executable that contained the entire game and could be downloaded by anyone who visited the site. People in the modding community were able to get the game running on modern PCs. Sega has since removed the file and now ships a USB drive to vendors instead.
• Creator-Driven Successor:
  • Daytona USA itself is this to Sega's earlier Virtua Racing.
  • Until the release a proper sequel in Daytona USA 2, Daytona USA had two — Indy 500 (a sister game with open-wheel Indy Cars) and SCUD Race (which featured a more exotic lineup of cars from the BPR/FIA GT Championship as opposed to the NASCAR-inspired racers of USA). SCUD Race in turn had its own spiritual sequel in Le Mans 24.
  • As for the stock car racing part, the Daytona USA series had this trope in form of NASCAR Arcade, which used the actual NASCAR sublicense with real NASCAR drivers and their cars.
• Dummied Out:
  • Two voice clips of the announcer saying "And they're underway!" and "Welcome to victory lane! You made it!" exist in USA 2, but go unused.
  • A model of a driver is present in the code of the original game, which was likely intended to be used during the victory cutscene.
  • Assets from Astro Waterfall Speedway, such as palm trees and the sounds of water cascading, were carried over into Power Edition but are never used.
  • A handful of music tracks are hidden in the data of USA 2 but aren't heard anywhere in the game. They can be heard on the game's soundtrack CD, and one song would eventually be used as the car selection theme in Championship USA.
  • Multiplayer is inaccessible in Like a Dragon Gaiden. Likewise, there's no way to play in Grand Prix or Endurance mode since you can't access the menu to turn these modes on.
• He Also Did:
  • Takenobu Mitsuyoshi, perhaps best known for his vocals in these games, has also been involved in the development of many other Sega titles, usually handling composing and/or sound design duties. Among many examples:
    • He helped compose the soundtrack for several (cult) classic titles such as Rent A Hero, OutRunners, Sega Rally Championship, Virtua Fighter 2, Sonic the Fighters, Virtua Fighter 3, Shenmue, and Shenmue II. Though his compositions in Sega games have been more infrequent from the 2000s onward, he's contributed to the likes of Sega Rally 2006, the Performai series (see below), and Sonic Superstars (the song "Battle Mode Medley"), among others.
    • He's provided voice acting for a handful of games, most notably lending his voice to Akira and Kage-Maru in the first Virtua Fighter. While the role of Akira was assumed by Shin-ichiro Miki from VF2 onward, Mitsuyoshi has reprised the role of Kage-Maru for every Virtua Fighter installment since as well as Project × Zone 2. Other credits include Bill in Burning Rival (Sega AM2's very first fighting game) and Sgt. Hatter/Apharmd the Hatter in Cyber Troopers Virtual-On Marz and Super Robot Wars Alpha 3.
    • He's the voice behind the memetic Game Over sequence for Sega Rally Championship ("GAME OVER, YEEEEEEEEEEEAH!"), something he was happy to recreate at URA TGS in 2009.
    • He sang the Japanese version of the main theme of Burning Rangers, "Angels with Burning Hearts". Much like with Daytona USA 2, Dennis St. James replaced him for the game's English release.
    • As an extra for the Sonic Gems Collection, he rearranged the Aurora Icefield BGM from Sonic the Fighters as a jazzy vocal track, "Fairy of A.I.F." (alternatively "Fairy of ICE"). This version of the song can heard playing in the various convenience stores throughout Yakuza 4.
    • He's the announcer in the Japanese version of Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed, no doubt a nod to his involvement in Daytona USA. Fans of Sonic Mania might also recognize him as the Time Attack and Competition announcer in that game.
    • He composed and arranged a number of songs for the Performai series since its first entry, many of which are Level 14 or 15 "boss" songs. One of the songs in that series, "IMPACT" by USAO, features a number of lines sung by him, most notably a callout of all the CHUNITHM versions (excluding Plus versions) up to CHUNITHM NEW.
    • He appeared As Himself in Phantasy Star Online 2 (yes, really) and performed — in both Japanese and English — the song "We're ARKS!" used during the recurrent ARKS Dance Festival live concert event. Also one of the singers featured in the Episode 6 credits theme, "Thank You".
    • For a non-Sega example, he provided his musical talents in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate with the "F-Zero Medley", not only remixing the themes from the SNES original (primarily Death Wind, Fire Field, and Port Town) but giving them the full Daytona USA treatment with vocal accompaniment.
    • He provided vocals for the song "Super Sonic" from Initial D The Arcade, meaning you can hear Mitsuyoshi's distinctive voice mixed in with the Eurobeat goodness Initial D is known for.
    • He appears as the host of Party Quiz Sega Q (an updated version of the Mega Drive quiz game Party Quiz Mega Q included with the Mega Drive Mini 2), replacing the original's Tiger Yakuto.
  • The cover of "The King of Speed" in Championship Circuit Edition was done by Richard Jacques, whose works include Sonic R, the Saturn version of Sonic 3D Blast, and Sonic & All-Stars Racing Transformed as well contributions to the OSTs of several other titles such as Jet Set Radio, Jet Set Radio Future, Sonic and the Black Knight, and Sonic Generations. The arrangement of "Let's Go Away" was handled by Jun Sunoue, who would later go on to form Crush 40. "Sky High" was remixed by Tomonori Sawada, who worked on Sonic Riders and Panzer Dragoon Zwei.
  • M2, the studio who helped bring USA 2 to Like a Dragon Gaiden, is well-known for their work on emulations. Their portfolio includes the Sega Ages line of games as well as the Sega Genesis Classic.
  • Amusement Vision, the studio who helped develop 2001, are also the developers of Super Monkey Ball and F-Zero GX. They would eventually get retooled into Ryu Ga Gotoku Studio, who are behind the Like A Dragon series.
• Inspiration for the Work:
  • In an interview during the development of F-Zero GX, Toshihiro Nagoshi revealed that F-Zero was a major inspiration for Daytona USA.
  • The development team of USA 2 took a trip to the Daytona International Speedway during the development of the game. While in Florida, the team visited Orlando, which is home to Walt Disney World and Universal Studios. The parks inspired the setting of the Advanced course; the shark tank seen at the starting line was inspired by the Jaws ride at Universal.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes:
  • Scud Race has yet to see any ports, which can be explained by the retirement of the BPR Global GT Series, which the game is based off of. Similarity, 2001 has also never been released off the Dreamcast due to Genki have no plans to partner with Sega again after the game.
  • For twenty five years, Daytona USA 2 never saw an official re-release on any home consoles or on PC. It finally saw one with its inclusion in Like a Dragon Gaiden: The Man Who Erased His Name. However, only Power Edition was re-released, so Battle on the Edge still remains an arcade exclusive.
  • The 2011 port has been delisted on PlayStation 3 and on Xbox One (as well as Series X|S). It can still be purchased on an Xbox 360 or on the Xbox website, but once its marketplace closes down in July 2024, there won’t be a way to purchase it on any digital marketplaces.
  • Indy 500 and NASCAR Arcade both have never been re-released in any form.
• Licensed Game:
  • The game's title name was already owned by International Speedway Corporation and the game is obviously based on NASCAR, more specifically races held on Daytona. Ironically, the actual Daytona International Speedway didn't appear until Championship USA.
  • Indy 500 is also licensed from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
• Lying Creator: When Championship USA was initially announced as Daytona 3 Championship USA, Sega marketed the game as the long-awaited sequel to 1998's Daytona USA 2, with three brand new courses and featured remastered versions of the original three courses from the first game. Playtesting footage revealed that it was actually another remake of the first game with enhanced graphics, and the "brand new courses" simply recycled the track layout of the original three, mirrored two of them and changed their appearance. When fans expressed their disappointment, the 3 was removed from the title.
• No Export for You:
  • Not counting the home ports, Championship USA wasn't released in Japan.
  • Scud Race Plus was never released outside of Japan.
• No Port For You:
  • Scud Race has never been ported to home consoles, despite fans requesting a port for over twenty years.
  • The 2011 port was never released on PC or Nintendo platforms. To this day, none of the games in the series have ever been released on a Nintendo console.
• Orphaned Reference: The bumper of Rusty Wallace's car in NASCAR Arcade reads "great taste", which references his sponsor Miller Lite. However, Miller is nowhere to be seen on his car.
• Pop-Culture Urban Legends: Following the release of Battle on the Edge, it was falsely believed that the second game's soundtrack was composed and performed entirely by Winger. Reb Beach and Rod Morgenstein provided guitars and drums respectively to certain songs in 2, but the soundtrack as a whole was composed by Takenobu Mitsuyoshi and Fumio Ito of Sega's internal sound team, with vocals provided by Dennis St. James of Burning Rangers fame.
• Prop Recycling: The model of the Dodge Viper from Scud Race is reused as the pace car in Power Edition. Perhaps due to legal issues, it was changed to a generic stock car in Like a Dragon Gaiden.
• Referenced by...:
  • Daytona USA 2 can be seen in the background during a scene in Dude, Where's My Car?.
  • This game makes a Lawyer-Friendly Cameo in Wreck-It Ralph. One of the games in Litwak's Arcade is a racing game called Finish Line, which features artwork of the Hornet.
  • In the Penny Arcade strip "And For My Next Trick", Tycho starts to sing the iconic refrain from "Let's Go Away" only for Gabe to yoink his heart out.
  • Sonic Mania contains several references to this game, including:
    • Takenobu Mitsuyoshi himself voices the announcer for the game's Time Attack and Competition modes.
    • In Studiopolis Zone, there are news vans decked out like the Hornet car, and the lottery machines have the Gallop logo on them.
    • The HUD seen in Special Stage is based on the HUD in USA 2.
    • One achievement is named "The King of Speed" after the original's Beginner course BGM.
• Screwed by the Lawyers:
  • Scud Race is modeled after the defunct BPR Global Series, and uses the real-life cars from the 1996 season. The game also features Product Placement from real-life brands. Because of this, re-releasing Scud Race is likely a legal nightmare that Sega just doesn't want to bother with. This is likely why the game was not included in Like a Dragon Gaiden alongside Daytona USA 2, and likely won't ever see a re-release.
  • The original was re-released as Sega Racing Classic in 2010 due to Sega not licensing the Daytona name. Daytona USA 2 was likewise retitled "Sega Racing Classic 2" in Like a Dragon Gaiden for the same reason — all traces of the word "Daytona" were completely removed from the game, while Takenobu Mitsuyoshi's rendition of the soundtrack was also completely removed due to him signing the word "Daytona" in the main theme.
  • NASCAR Arcade features the likenesses of real-life drivers as well as real tracks. Because of this, the game likely has several legal issues surrounding it which prevent it from ever getting re-released. On top of that, the game was developed in partnership with Electronic Arts, which likely further complicates matters. Similarly, Indy 500 uses the real-life Indianapolis Motor Speedway, which prevents it from being re-released without a license.
• Sequel Gap:
  • Championship USA (2017) was released 19 years after Daytona USA 2 (1998), and 16 after 2001.
  • USA 2 was released almost five years after the original.
• Technology Marches On: Some versions of the original arcade game have advertisements for the Sega Saturn, a system that's long been discontinued.
• Urban Legend of Zelda: Unlocking the Red Cat in 2001. The rumor that gets around most is having to run the play time past 20 hours or by winning one online race. One Troper can attest that the former is rubbish (at least in the U.S. version) and the latter might be a tad difficult with the Dreamcast's online servers long dead.
• What Could Have Been:
  • Sega had originally planned to port Daytona USA 2 to the Dreamcast after the console's launch, only to quietly cancel the project. Daytona USA 2001 was developed and released as a consolation.
  • Daytona USA's sister game, Indy 500, was going to have a Sega Saturn port before the development team recycled it for Daytona USA: Championship Circuit Edition due to weaker fan demand.
  • Scud Race was planned to be ported to the Saturn, and then the Dreamcast, but it never materialized.
  • Scud Race Plus has the option to change the game to Sega Super GT Plus, suggesting an American release was considered at one point.
  • According to one of the developers of Indy 500, there was originally a secret code that would transform your car into a hovercraft a la the DeLorean from Back to the Future. Management saw it during playtesting and had it removed.
• Working Title: Daytona Championship USA was originally named Daytona 3 Championship USA, but was changed following negative feedback when it became apparent the game was another Updated Re-release of the first game.