I had a friend in High School who put the same VIN tag on 4 different chassis. It was sold at some point. 1 in 10 million people might check to see if it has the factory correct rivits.
A car does not have to be registered to race at the track. John Force does not have a tag for his funny car. You could steal a car and go race it, and no one would know.
I wouldn't worry about the steering wheel. There's all kinds of reason it could have ended up with an airbag steering wheel. Friend parted out a car, that was what was at the junkyard that day, who knows.
It looks like a terrific car to start with. There are so many terrific deals on rollers now, it's hard to justify building a car from scratch. It looks like a lot of fun without having to do all the work.
Kurt