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In a future United States of America, prison inmates compete against each other in a driving arena. The film begins by showing a race near its end between two cars, a Dodge Ram and a Ford Mustang, both loaded with various guns and armor. The driver of the Mustang is a famous masked driver known as Frankenstein, who is accompanied by a female navigator. The driver of the Dodge Ram, Machine Gun Joe (Tyrese Gibson) fires various weapons at Frankenstein’s car, damaging it horribly, and Frankenstein’s defense weapons fail for unexplained reasons. As a last resort, Frankenstein drops his car’s rear armor plate (nicknamed "The Tombstone") and succeeds in brutally damaging the Dodge Ram. However, Frankenstein’s fuel tank is exposed as a result, and Joe capitalizes, firing off a missile to the fuel tank. He tells his navigator to eject herself, but he continues on as the fuel tank explodes, propelling his car over the finish line, presumably leaving Frankenstein critically wounded, or dead.

At this point, title cards explain that the economy of the United States has fallen into disaster, and private corporations run most prisons across the nation for profit. The movie focuses on the Terminal Island Prison, where arena cage fights between prisoners fighting to the death are broadcast to the world via internet. After crowds became bored with the fighting, the prison adopted a new event for the entire world to see: Death Race, a race where cars armed with various weapons and armour would try to win, but survive each other while doing it. Jensen Ames (Jason Statham) works at a steel mill that closes due to bankruptcy, but things get worse when he returns home to tell his wife. She’s fine with it, but as Ames goes to check on their baby, his wife comes face to face with an intruder. Ames returns to see his wife on the floor dead and is knocked out by the intruder, awakening later with a bloody knife in his hand and his wife’s body next to him, framing him for her murder. Ames is sent to prison where he is coerced by the prison warden, Hennessey (Joan Allen) to become the new driver of the Ford Mustang. She tells Ames that she knows of his baby that was left in foster care, and that prisoners are freed upon winning five Death Races, but since he will take on the mask of the legendary Frankenstein (who had 4 wins at the time of his death), he will only need to win one race. The races are broken apart into three stages: Stage 1 and 2 are races in which the driver must survive, and Stage 3 you must win the race in order for it to add to the count towards freedom.

During the Stage 1 Race, Ames is introduced to his navigator, Case (Natalie Martinez), who happens to be Frankenstein’s previous navigator, and later in the race recognizes another driver, Pachenko, as the man who killed his wife. Ames finishes last after taking a hard hit from Machine Gun Joe. Ames learns he is part of a plot to keep the legend of Frankenstein alive, solely for the personal profit of Hennessey. He confronts Hennessey about the driver, but instead she shows him pictures of his baby living with foster parents, asking him if he thinks he could provide for his baby better than the foster parents. Angered, he takes one of the pictures and leaves. He goes into the Stage 2 race and immediately questions Case on her intentions. She tells him she was ordered to sabotage Frankenstein’s defense weapons so he would not win his freedom, and thereby earn her own. Ames realizes he is not meant to survive the Death Race at all, but is meant to die so another "Frankenstein" can be brought into the prison to keep viewers paying to see the races. He seeks revenge during Stage 2 by killing Pachenko, then sets his sights on Hennessey. Realizing that Ames knows what’s going on, she has Ames’ car armed with an explosive before the Stage 3 Race as insurance to make sure he does not cross the finish line alive. However, Ames devises his own scheme from an image shown by one of his crew members of a destroyed billboard in an earlier race.

The Stage 3 Race begins with only two drivers remaining: "Frankenstein" and Machine Gun Joe. Before the race, Ames adds an extra half-gallon fuel tank to his car, and tells Joe that he and Frankenstein should talk. The race begins, and Ames soon takes the lead. However, the odds are against Ames as Hennessey rigs the track to benefit Joe. Throughout the entire lap, Joe keeps hot on Ames’ tail, and as they near the beginning of the second lap, and the Tombstone starts to give out, Ames’ orders Case to release it, in an effort to make Joe back off. Unlike last time though, Joe expects it, and easily avoids the oncoming Tombstone. Now that Ames’ fuel tank is exposed, Joe preps newly added missiles and fires in Ames’ direction. However, they seem to miss the car and instead hit the billboard at the first turn of the track. It is shown that the image Ames saw was a pathway to the bridge leading off the island to the mainland behind the destroyed billboard.

It turns out that Ames and Joe had plotted their escape from the beginning of Stage 3, as they drive out onto the bridge to escape the island. However, Hennessey mobilizes helicopters and police cruisers to apprehend them. As the cruisers close in on the two cars, Ames releases his exposed fuel tank, causing it to explode and stop the pursuing cars. Turning to her back up plan, Hennessey then orders that the explosive under Ames’ car be set off, but nothing happens. Escaping past the bridge, Joe and Ames separate, and Hennessey orders the helicopters to focus on Ames, but he switches seats with Case when she tells him that Hennessey had already signed her release papers for her work, and that she owed one to the old Frankenstein. He jumps from the car leading the helicopters to believe he is still inside. Joe meets up with Ames and they board a train to escape, lamenting on Hennessey’s continued existence. Soon, Ames’ Mustang is stopped and "Frankenstein" is apprehended.

Later, it is shown that Hennessey believes she still won after all, as a guard notifies her about presents sent to her for the record number of viewers subscribing to the Death Race. However, the explosive that was put on the Frankenstein car is found inside, and blows up as Coach (Ames’ crew member) is seen setting off the detonator and giving the quote "I love this game". Six months later, Ames and Joe are shown working in a junkyard in Mexico, when Case unexpectedly arrives. The two men and her are happy to see each other, and Ames shows her his baby. The movie closes with Ames explaining that even though he knows he’s far from being the best parent in the world, no one could love his baby more than he could.