With the Daytona 500 and the Academy Awards falling on the same day this year, I was trying to figure out some sort of Oscar/NASCAR blog as today's post. It's tough coming up with coming up with a post about two things that are so completely unrelated. But then it dawned on me, "Why don't I just do one on the best NASCAR movies?" There haven't been many, but there's certainly been enough for a list of the top ones.
As it turns out, the list of good NASCAR movies is fairly short. Even if all forms of racing were included, you'd have films like Rush on the list, but it still wouldn't have that many that could truly be classified as "quality" movies. It's so bad, that I was even considering ranking movies like 3, that terrible ESPN original about Dale Earnhardt they made when they were trying to break into scripted programming in the mid-2000s. That very good IMAX movie about the history of NASCAR doesn't count because it's a documentary and I want this list to only include movies that have some sort of plot.
Another great documentary, Senna, doesn't qualify, either, mainly because Ayrton Senna wasn't a NASCAR driver. He raced in Formula One. If I did include those two movies on the list, Rush and Senna would probably rank 1-2. But as it is, I think there are really only three movies with NASCAR-based plots that could really be considered true Hollywood classics.
The first doesn't even include real people. Well, not really anyway. It's Cars. My three-year-old nephew is obsessed with this movie, and I can see why. It really is a good movie. I'd argue that Cars 2 is slightly better, but I'm not going to give the nod to the sequel when the original was just as good. His favorite character is Lightning McQueen, while I'm partial to Mater. If you don't know who McQueen and Mater are, I suggest watching Cars. You won't be disappointed.
Ranked No. 2 on my list of greatest NASCAR movies is the Will Ferrell flick Talladega Nights. As stupid as a majority of Will Ferrell's movies are, Talladega Nights is one of the best. Don't get me wrong. It's also incredibly stupid. But it's great all the same. One of the best things about this movie, which was pointed out in something I was watching, I just don't remember what, is that in a movie called Talladega NIGHTS, there isn't a single scene that takes place at night.
Both of those movies pale in comparison to the greatest NASCAR movie of all-time, though. That movie, of course, is Days of Thunder. It's actually the 25th anniversary of this American classic, which still ranks as one of Tom Cruise's best. It's also the movie that introduced us all to Nicole Kidman, so extra points for that.
NASCAR die-hards by and large hate Days of Thunder, and the critics aren't really big fans of it either. But there's no denying that the movie helped bring NASCAR into the mainstream. It also helps that Cole Trickle, Cruise's character, was this young, good-looking guy from California breaking into the primarily Southern sport. The real life Cole Trickle is Jeff Gordon, who was just beginning his brilliant career at right around the same time Days of Thunder came out. Love him or hate him, Jeff Gordon has been the Face of NASCAR for the better part of two decades.
I'm sure there are others that I either haven't seen or forgot about, but Cars, Talladega Nights and Days of Thunder are my three favorite NASCAR movies of all-time. None of them won any Oscars (nor did they deserve to), but they all have a special place in sports movie annals.
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