Ex-con-turned-race car driver Coy "Cannonball" Buckman signs up for the annual Trans-American Grand Prix, an illegal outlaw road race that starts at the Santa Monica Pier in California and ends in a garage in the lower west side of New York City. His girlfriend, who's also his parole officer, refuses to let him go, but she ends up getting dragged along for the ride. But what Coy doesn't know is that his brother makes a bet with the local Mafia that Coy wins the race.