This movie was originally planned as an action movie starring Steve McQueen. After McQueen's death, the lead went to Burt Reynolds, and the movie became a comedy.
Jackie Chan made one of his first U.S. movie appearances. Inspired by director Hal Needham's notion of including bloopers during the closing credits, Chan began a tradition of doing the same in most of his movies, from this point onward.
The ambulance used in the movie is the actual ambulance that director Hal Needham and screenwriter Brock Yates souped up and raced in the real Cannonball Run. It had been modified with a Landy built 440ci wedge engine
, that made it go up to 145 miles per hour (233 kilometers per hour), and was equipped with four gas filler holes, so that the required 90 gallons (341 liters) could be pumped quickly. Needham and Yates didn't win the race (the transmission blew in Palm Springs, California) so Needham kept it in storage for several years, until the time came to make this film. After the movie, he gave it to a church charity, which raised a good deal of money auctioning it off.
Jackie Chan, who played a small role in this movie, was very upset when he learned his character was Japanese, since he is Chinese.
Burt Reynolds became the highest paid actor in cinema history up to that point, for this movie, making $5 million for four weeks work.