Steve Tesich based the Dave Stoller character on David K. Blase, who had once led a team to victory in the Little 500 and had an Italian fixation. Blase had a cameo as the race announcer in this movie.
The term "Cutters" heard in the film is used to represent Bloomington, Indiana townies who work cutting rock in the local limestone quarries. The production team decided to call the Bloomington townies "cutters" because they felt the actual local nickname ("stoners" or "stonies") would draw a parallel to drug references for viewers who were not raised in the area.
Initially, the Indiana Student Foundation promised director Peter Yates 20,000 student extras for the final race scenes. Unfortunately, only 3,000 showed up, causing Yates to change his camera angles.
In the scene where Dave admits to Katherine that he is not Italian but is actually a "Cutter" (one of the local residents), Katherine starts to walk off, then turns back and slaps him across the face. According to director Peter Yates, she did not 'fake' the slap but actually did strike him, and fairly hard at that. There were over 6 takes for this scene, with several onlookers flinching every time Dennis Christopher got slapped.
The Aug. 4, 2003, issue of Sports Illustrated listed "Breaking Away" as #8 on their list of the top 50 sports movies of all time.