An MIT mechanical engineer pairs up with a professional stunt driver for an unusual type of race. Both agreed to drive a new type of automobile in an illegal cross-country race to test new technologies where the winner would gain unprecedented fame and become rich over new contracts to replace the aging ideas of the combustion engine. This race is an engineer's dream. 

Like building robots to fight in an arena for supremacy over their knowledge of new technological designs and mastery of robotics, the auto industry equates similar processes in car racing. But the the hold of the internal combustion engine and fossil fuels refuse to let go. In an act of rebellious, ego-driven billionaire entrepreneurship, the most influential of them organize this race to break the hold of the combustion engine, with teams introducing new, wild, non-fossil-fueled combustion ideas. 

Originally designed as a car race by billionaires to make money, one decides to make money on the race itself instead of entering a team and organizes a secret televised viewing where high-stakes betting is encouraged. All the race teams are given a laser powerful enough to disable an opponent to keep the race interesting to the gamblers while a fleet of nondescript trucks follow each car with a camera crew. With betting on the table, the mob gets involved forcing the stakes up through the roof. Hit men and gangs are conscripted to trim the contestants out of the race to favor the richest gambler. The poor racers, unbeknownst to this high stakes game, are picked off one by one until the most resilient are left. That's when the weapons come out.

Katrina Meservier, the engineer, and Richard Bertrand, the driver, should be in sync to pilot the most advanced automobile on the planet across the US, but from the moment the starting flag dropped, they were at each other's throats. What was supposed to be a quiet, invisible race across the country to test new technologies turned out to be a race to see who would stay alive long enough to reach the finish line. When the bullets started coming their way, their special skills blossomed, bringing out new appreciation for each other. With the mob, gangs, and hitmen after them, together they became unstoppable.