This game originally started out as a racing game for the Wallace & Gromit series, called "Wallace & Gromit: The Grand Tour". Unused graphics and code relating to Wallace & Gromit can still be found within the game's data, such as text describing the main characters' appearance, as well as pictures of Wallace, Gromit, Preston & Wendolene.

In the 2020 Data Design Interactive leak, an early build of Wallace & Gromit: The Grand Tour dated to April 15, 1999 was discovered, revealing that the game would have featured custom vehicle building, co-op multiplayer mechanics, and that Feathers McGraw and the Techno Trousers from the short film Wallace & Gromit: The Wrong Trousers were also planned to be playable characters. One piece of included concept art features a multiplayer battle stage set in New York City, where one of the other competing racers is a taxi driver. Three years earlier in 1996, series creator Nick Park briefly lost clay models of Wallace and Gromit in the back of a yellow taxi in the city, possibly making this stage a reference to the incident. Also found within the game's data are an unfinished vehicle model named "Chitty-Chitty-Bang-Bang" based on the 1968 film of the same name, and a low-quality copy of the theme song to the 1981 animated series The Smurfs, both appearing to be remnants of earlier pitches for the game.