During the opening shot of Miss Madison making a test run, the driver has a white helmet and in other shots of the same run, the driver has an orange helmet.
The film depicted the schedule as follows; Miami, Florida; Chicago; Seattle, Dayton, and Madison. The actual schedule of 1971 was as follows: Miami, Florida; Washington, DC, Owensboro, Kentucky; Detroit, Michigan; Madison, Indiana; Tri-Cities, Washington; Seattle, Washington; Dexter, Oregon; Dallas, Texas. No races occurred in Chicago at the year the film took place.
The film states that the APBA Gold Cup race at Madison, Indiana took place on Labor Day, in fact it took place on July 4 that year.
The McCormick family resided in Owensboro, Kentucky; not in Madison, Indiana as the film stated.
When Jim and the mayor are in the high school gym trying to sell the townspeople on hosting the Gold Cup race, the basketball court has three-point lines. Those did not exist in high school basketball until 1987.
Film takes place in 1971. When Mike sees a celebrity at the Miami race, he asks another kid if that's Grizzly Adams. The kid says yes, it's Dan Haggerty. Haggerty didn't introduce the Grizzly Adams character until 1974 in the film The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams (1974) (and the TV Show The Life and Times of Grizzly Adams (1977) was three years later).
Shots showing the crowd show numerous folding "bag chairs." Chairs such as this were introduced in the 1990s. Folding chairs of the time would be metal tube framed with woven fabric strap seats.
The Miss Budweiser raced through the film in its all-red color scheme, which was not adopted by the team until 1994.
During the Gold Cup race, aerial shots show modern cabin-forward closed canopy hydroplanes sitting in the pits when it is supposed to set in 1971.