In Mission 8, entitled "The Whore", the player is sent to a hotel called 'The Corleone', a reference to the crime family empire in the movie The Godfather (1972).
After completing the race, it lists the names of the opponent drivers. The names are taken from notable heavy/death metal musicians, such as Mark "Barney" Greenway of Napalm Death, Chris Barnes of Cannibal Corpse, Page Hamilton of Helmet, or Kirk Windstein of Crowbar.
Every type of car has the same license plate.
In the mission, Just For Relaxation. The crates marked Scorsese Import Export are a reference to film director Martin Scorsese who directed classic crime films such as Mean Streets (1973), Goodfellas (1990), and Casino (1995).
In 2020 Mafia the city of Lost Heaven was remade as Mafia: Definitive Edition (2020), for modern consoles with the latest graphical enhancements. The game added more in-depth character development scenes including giving characters like Pauli and Sam last names and showing more scenes with Sarah, Tommy's wife, who only appeared in this version of the game once.