The Death Race series is a car combat franchise encompassing a series of films and other media centered on a reality show set in a prison, where inmates race against each other in order to win their freedom.
After the "World Crash of '79", massive civil unrest and economic ruin occurs. The United States government restructured into a totalitarian regime under martial law. To pacify the population, the government has organized the Transcontinental Road Race, where a group of drivers race across the country in their high-powered cars, infamous for violence, gore, and innocent pedestrians being struck for bonus points.
A man wrongfully convicted of murder agrees to compete in a grueling three-day race against fellow inmates in exchange for his freedom.
Getaway driver Carl "Luke" Lucas is arrested after a robbery for his crime boss Markus Kane goes wrong. As his accomplices are robbing the bank, two officers casually enter the building. Luke tells them to abort, but they refuse; Luke intervenes, but it results in the death of one of the three accomplices. Luke shoots and kills one of the officers and dumps off his accomplices in order to fulfill Markus's wishes. In doing so, Luke is eventually captured by the police following a high-speed chase and sentenced to prison. Six months later, Luke is transferred to Terminal Island.
Death Race owner R.H. Weyland has been forced to sell the rights to Niles York, a British billionaire who acquired the rights by hostile takeover. York intends to relocate the Death Race to South Africa as the Transcontinental Death Race. Before leaving, Weyland arranges Carl Lucas, also known as Frankenstein (Death Race), to have surgery to heal the infected and deadly scars on his face sustained in Death Race 2. With Lucas one win away from gaining his freedom, York threatens to kill him if he wins.
Five long decades after Death Race 2000, in the overpopulated United Corporations of America, the annual Death Race is about to begin. This time, Frankenstein is up against no-nonsense challengers. How many points will he score?
A privatized security firm runs the Sprawl, a massive prison housing around 420,000 inmates. Inside, the popular Death Race competition (a last-man-standing competition where inmates race modified cars armed with heavy weapons) has been made illegal by the new warden who was hired by the prison's owner, Weyland International. He has been tasked with taking out Frankenstein, the prison's Death Race champion and king.