This song is about living each day like it's your last and making the most of it while you still can. "Nitro" refers to nitrous oxide, which is often used in drag racing and street racing to to boost the power of the engine for a short period of time. The outro of the song sounds similar to the siren of an ambulance, perhaps indicating a fatal crash.
Nitro is also the name of the independent record label founded by The Offspring's frontman Dexter Holland and bassist Greg Kriesel in 1994, which signed punk rock acts like AFI, The Damned, TSOL, and The Vandals.
The song is part of The Offspring's third album, Smash, which stands as the best-selling album released on and distributed by an independent label. It was issued on Epitaph Records, a Los Angeles-based label that was home to punk rockers like Rancid and L7. When punk started booming in the mid-'90s, so did Epitaph, with The Offspring outselling all their other acts by a wide margin. This led to a financial dispute, and the band left for Columbia Records, a major label that issued their next album, Ixnay On The Hombre.
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