The races faded, other than some twists in things like routes, budgets or car vintages, but not the urge to beat the clock. The general idea still stands: Do whatever it takes to get from Manhattan’s Red Ball Garage on East 31st Street to The Portofino Hotel in Redondo Beach as fast as possible on four wheels.

The route between those traditional end points is up to drivers. The choice is between a northern route, following much of I-80 and I-70, or a southern one, of almost identical distance, along parts of I-70, I-44 and I-40. In today’s low-traffic world, Google Maps estimates that either drive should take 41 hours or so, without stops.

The key is to evade the biggest complications — police and traffic. And never has there been less traffic.

“Traffic is a major logistical challenge,” Mr. Tabbutt said. “Police is a variable we can almost control. There are tons of countermeasures. But we cannot control traffic.”

Coronavirus has.

“All of the cannonballers are talking about it,” Mr. Tabbutt said.

Record-seeking runs usually take place in the fall, to avoid severe weather and roads clogged by slow-moving vacationers. Auxiliary gas tanks in the trunk can limit time-killing fuel stops to three or four.

Most attempts leave New York at night, to avoid city traffic, and get to Los Angeles before the morning rush. That means broad daylight across most of the open country. Cities can be sticky with traffic, but true time-killers are the narrow interstates across the plains. Every driver’s frustration of being stuck behind one truck slowly passing another is multiplied when anything less than 100 miles per hour is a time suck.

Tools might include radar detectors, laser jammers, multiple GPS systems, night-vision cameras and traffic-light changers, like those employed by emergency vehicles. Most serious cannonballers employ a team of lookouts in cars, maybe even a plane. Inside the car, the crew uses computers, communication devices and binoculars to anticipate the road ahead.