Apparently not a ripoff of The Car?

Crash! views just like a ripoff of The Car. Driverless muscle car causing mayhem and deaths, cops trying to locate and stop it. But amazingly, it was released four months before The Car.

Is it possible that neither filmmaker knew of the other film's existence? Or did the makers of Crash! perhaps read about the upcoming The Car and quickly churn out a cheap knockoff to cash in?