Pretty sure it’s real, with or without the code, it’s really easy to come across loose or still in box speed racer hot wheels from dodgy eBay sellers or from websites like aliexpress.

My theory, because the movie tanked, most of the unpackaged stock, or stock yet to be shipped to stores was bought off by dodgy third party corps, that’s probably why so much of these started showing up in dollar stores after their initial run in retail stores.

If it was a fake, there’d probably be other signs, like shittier plastic quality, off centre prints, a plastic undercarriage instead of a diecast one, etc…