Continental Circus was not a mistranslation

In 1987 Japanese arcade game manufacturer Taito released a racing game called Continental Circus. Internet legend states that this was a mistranslation and that the game should have been called Continental Circuits, and indeed for its US release the cabinet artwork was changed to use this name.

Was this really a mistranslation, or could it perhaps just have been a misunderstanding or a marketing strategy?

Formula 1 is a Circus
For many years, Formula 1 has been referred to as a "Circus". I am not sure as to the origins of this, but it has certainly been true over the 30 years I have watched the sport and may refer to the travelling nature of the F1 season or perhaps a reference to the ancient Circus Maximus which was a chariot racing stadium. It could also be a reference to something else entirely of course. The fact remains that F1 was, is and forever shall be referred to as a circus.

I was surprised to find in a recent conversation that some people are unaware of this and argued that it makes no sense for it to be called a circus. This can, of course, easily be refuted by a quick Google search for "Formula 1 circus". The retort then is that this must only be a modern trend, which again can also easily be refuted by using a custom date search on Google's news page such as this one which returns many results for the term dating back to the 1970's.

The Japanese text says "Circus"
According to the Japanese Wiki page the name of the game is コンチネンタルサーカス. The important part is サーカス, which Google translate will tell you is Circus.

Clearly, then, the Japanese developers had every intention of calling the game Circus.

So what's going on?
Unfortunately I don't have any contacts at Taito, so cannot confirm my suspicions. However, here's what I think probably happened.

As we've seen, Formula 1 is often referred to as a circus and also that the Japanese developers had every intention of calling the game Continental Circus, so I think this is unlikely to be a case of mistranslation.

Formula 1, however, has never had a big following in the United States, so I think it is likely that one of the following is true:

1) The US marketeers, unaware that Formula 1 is commonly referred to as a circus, believed this to be a mistranslation and thought that it should be circuits or

2) The game name was changed for the US audience who quite probably would not get the reference to the F1 circus and would assume the original name meant clowns, elephants and big-top tents etc.

Either way, I don't believe this was in any way a classic Engrish mistranslation.