Goofs for
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006) More at IMDbPro »

• Continuity: Several times throughout the various racing scenes, the cars in the race change from Busch Series cars to Nextel Cup cars and back again.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: In the last shot, as they drive away from the race track in the Chevelle, you can see that the road they are on is barricaded at the far end (for filming purposes).
  
  
• Continuity: In the winner's circle at the end of the movie, Cal's earring appears and disappears between takes.
  
  

• Revealing mistakes: When Ricky and Susan are talking in the bar, in the close-up shots Susan's glasses have no lenses in them.
  
  
• Continuity: In the bar, when Ricky and Susan are talking, the table beside them, currently in the foreground, has a tip on it. In the first shot, the bills are lying flat, but in all proceeding clips, the top bill is folded up in the back-right corner.
  
  
• Continuity: When Ricky Bobby is talking to Cal and Carli is beside them listening to them, her sunglasses go from over her eyes to up on her head between shots.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: There is an obvious stunt driver when Ricky is running from the police.
  
  
• Continuity: In one of the races, Ricky Bobby has a "Fig Newton" sticker on his windshield, taking up practically the entire windshield. During his crash sequence, there is no sticker on his windshield.
  
  
• Continuity: While at the Unlucky Possum bar, Susan's hair changes from on the side of her face to pulled back in various shots.
  
  
• Continuity: When Ricky Bobby is getting his arm broken by Girard on the pool table, at one point he has a beer in his hand. But in the next shot the beer has disappeared.
  
  
• Continuity: During Ricky Bobby's first crash, he's shown shifting gears in an effort to catch up to the Frenchman. He's wearing Silver shoes with a blue Puma symbol and after the crash, while he's running around "on fire", he's wearing blue shoes with a yellow Puma symbol.
  
  
• Continuity: During the school scene when Ricky's Dad comes in, he is wearing sunglasses. They disappear and then reappear in the next two camera angle changes.
  
  
• Continuity: When Ricky is in the hospital and his teammates are talking to him about how he is not paralyzed and he can use his legs, the collar/neckline of his hospital gown repeatedly changes position around his neck between shots.
  
  
• Continuity: When five-year-old Ricky steals his mother's station wagon outside the convenience store, the same maroon 1972 Ford Mustang is shown twice. First spinning out from the left as Ricky exits the parking lot (viewed from the store), and in the very next shot, the Mustang swerves again as Ricky navigates the busy street (long view).
  
  
• Continuity: During the final crash at Talladega, Ricky Bobby's car is upside down, but on the laptop screen from which Lucius is tracking the race the car is right side up.
  
  
• Continuity: When Ricky is talking to Cal Naughton, Jr on the phone, a pillow behind him disappears then reappears in different positions several times during the conversation.
  
  
• Continuity: When Cal Naughton, Jr calls Ricky, Ricky reaches over to answer the phone behind the cushion and knocks the remote between his body and the couch. A little later in the scene, the remote is in his other hand, then it is on his lap, and then back in his hand again.
  
  
• Continuity: When Cal is whispering "Shake and Bake" into Girard's ear, you can see a wedding ring on his finger, but at this moment in the movie he is not married. This happens during the fight between Girard and Ricky when Ricky shows up at the track with a broken arm.
  
  
• Continuity: In Ricky's first crash there is a car that swerves sideways and looks as if it is going to hit Bobby on the side. In the next shot the car is past Ricky's car and going straight down the road.
  
  
• Continuity: During the race where there is a large "Fig Newton" sticker on Ricky's windshield, the wording slopes downward from the passenger side to the driver's side, when viewed from outside the car. This would block Ricky's view. When the camera is inside the car, looking forward, the wording slopes upward from the passenger side to the driver's side, giving Ricky a relatively unobstructed view.
  
  
• Factual errors: When Ricky and Cal execute "Shake N Bake", they down shift before pulling out of line. A few times this occur, they're racing at Talladega. With the exception of restarts, and entering and exiting pit road (which they did at full speed), you never have to shift during the race. Also, Ricky was single-handedly passing multiple cars at Talladega. With today's air packages and plates, passing one car alone is a feat that rarely occurs.
  
  
• Factual errors: When Bobby tries to win the race while driving in reverse there should have been flaps on the roof. Every NASCAR car has flaps that open up on the roof to prevent them from flying into the air when in a crash. They only open when the car is moving in reverse with sufficient wind speed.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: When they race at Texas Motor Speedway, the track in most of the small scenes afterwards is Talladega.
  
  
• Factual errors: The race held at Texas Motor Speedway has signs showing that it is the Dickies 500. That race is held in November and ends after dark. The race is finished in the daylight.
  
  
• Continuity: When Ricky realizes that Cal crudely pasted his face over his in the family portrait, the close-up shows Cal wearing sunglasses. From further away, the photo shows Cal with no sunglasses on.
  
  
• Continuity: At the end, the "ME" car when revealed, is powered by a grungy, orange small block Chevy V8. Note, distributor at the rear of motor. After "borrowing" parts to be competitive, it miraculously turned into a small block Ford v8. Distributor is now in front.
  
  
• Continuity: When Reese Bobby shows up at school for career day and is standing at the door of the classroom he is wearing sunglasses. The shot cuts away to Ricky excited to see his dad then cuts back to Reese and the glasses are gone. The shot cuts away to the teacher then back to Reese and his sunglasses are back.
  
  
• Continuity: When Ricky Bobbys father gets thrown out of Applebees and they are walking down the center of the street, from the head-on shots as he is following his dad, the double yellow centerlines are far apart. In the side, profile cuts, the centerline is a normal double yellow line only about one foot wide.
  
  
• Continuity: When Ricky has his big wreck and thinks he's on fire, there are no people in the stands.
  
  
• Continuity: When Ricky gets his arm broken you can clearly see it's his left arm. But when he's in the car he has the cast on his right arm.
  
  
• Continuity: When Ricky and Jean get out of their cars after the final crash, Ricky clearly has a "soul patch" (facial hair on lower lip). However, when they are running to the finish line, he does not have the patch. When they are waving to the crowd, Ricky has his patch back.
  
  
• Continuity: When Ricky meets Mr. Dennit for the first time, he brings his drunken wife. During this seen, her arm switches from being on Mr. Dennit's shoulder to her beer cup between shots.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: Ricky was fired from Dennit Racing in the middle of the movie but before the last race it looks like his uniform still has Dennit Racing on it. However, a closer look shows that the wording has been at least partially removed, but that the stitching is still visible.
  
  
• Continuity: When they all are seated for dinner praying to Baby Jesus, the glass on the far right of the screen keeps going from full to half full, straw and no straw.
  
  
• Factual errors: During the restart when both Jean Girard and Ricky Bobby are the only 2 remaining cars with 6 laps left, they start side-by-side. In NASCAR, all lead-lap cars restart single-file, and with 10 or fewer laps left, all carts restart single-file, regardless of being on the same lap or not.
  
  
• Factual errors: The standard North Carolina State Patrol cars are not white as they are during the police chase. They are silver with a black on both sides.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: After Reese Bobby was thrown out of Applebee's, you can see that he is wearing knee pads while talking to Ricky in the street.
  
  
• Factual errors: Ricky's father tells him at the motel that he was conceived when he was only 17, putting Ricky's father 18 years older, at most, than Ricky. Later that day (in the kitchen), Ricky's father tells Ricky that he is 55 years old, which would make Ricky either 37 or 38. When Ricky gets his drivers license, it shows his DOB is 7/16/71 and the date issued is 7/16/02, which would make him only 31.
  
  
• Incorrectly regarded as goofs: The quote attributed to Eleanor Roosevelt in the opening credits was not actually spoken by her. As the film is a comedy, we can assume the film makers meant for it to be a joke.
  
  
• Factual errors: The North Carolina State Highway Patrol cars are shown with civilian-style license plates. As of 2004, the NCSHP only puts civilian-style license plates on unmarked patrol cars.
  
  
• Continuity: After the crash during practice when Ricky pulls into the pits, he throws his helmet off when he gets out of the car. A few seconds his helmet is back on.
  
  
• Factual errors: Although NASCAR does allow relief drivers to get in a car after the race is already started. The relief driver must have practiced in a NASCAR Cup car during that weekend at that track of the event. Since Ricky is on the pit crew, he would not have practiced a car and therefore would not be allowed to get in the car for his first race.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: There are two race cars shown as Dodge Intrepids, Jamie McMurray's car and the yellow #22 Caterpillar car. NASCAR switched to Dodge Charger in 2005, although some team were still using the Intrepid. In the final race at Talladega the yellow #22 Caterpillar car is shown as a Dodge Intrepid but with Dodge Charger logos. At the same race, Jamie Mcmurray's car can be seen as a Dodge Charger stock car during the big wreck.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: Twice during the scene in Ricky's mother's kitchen, Ricky's younger son mouths the words while his older brother is saying them.
  
  
• Continuity: Before the final race at Talladega, Ricky approaches his newly painted "ME" car uncovered, the car is then shown later to be covered and then unveiled.
  
  
• Boom mic visible: After the race where Ricky wins in reverse, when he is talking to the Dennit racing president you can clearly see a boom visible in the car window.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: AS Ricky's parents are driving to the hospital during the opening scene of the movie, the shift lever is in the Park position.
  
  
• Continuity: On Ricky's white "ME" racing suit, there is a Dennit Racing logo on his left shoulder. Even though he was fired from Dennit Racing earlier in the film.
  
  
• Continuity: During the school scene in the beginning of the movie, Ricky can clearly be seen writing on his desk with his right hand, but later in the movie he is shown signing autographs with his left hand.
  
  
• Factual errors: NASCAR did not implement the double file restarts for lead lap cars until midway through the 2009 season. Since Ricky Bobby and Jean Girard were both still on the lead lap, Ricky Bobby would have had to line up behind Girard since he was in second place when the caution flag came out. Ricky would have been black flagged for lining up that way, meaning he could not have won the race, even if he had crossed the line before Girard.
  
  
• Factual errors: Ricky Bobby's car is shown to have a 5 speed transmission with a reverse gear. However NASCAR only allows a 4 speed transmission with a reverse gear.
  
  

• Continuity: SPOILER: During the long crash scene that ends Jean Girard and Ricky Bobby's race, both cars lose most if not all of their wheels, as they are visibly attached only by their safety tethers. After the wreck, however, both cars have all their wheels in place.
  
  
• Revealing mistakes: SPOILER: During the climatic crash scene, when Ricky Bobby and Jean Girard's cars are tumbling and crashing in slow motion, the interiors of the cars are plainly and repeatedly visible, revealing no engines, no transmissions, and no car parts whatsoever. These crashed vehicles were clearly only car bodies with wheels cosmetically attached.
  
  

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