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The Best Racing Films and What Makes Them So Great

by Kevin Faber

Like most sports, racing is limited to a specific season. There are practical reasons for that; racing season is when conditions are most favorable for racing and safest for driving. Nevertheless, the off-season can be difficult for fans to endure. Fortunately, there are still ways to get your fix while waiting for the season to begin again. Racing has held such a fascination for so many people for so long that there are dozens of movies centered around it. Here is a chance to relive some old favorites and perhaps discover some new ones.

Grand Prix

A critical success, Grand Prix won three Academy Awards, more than any other racing movie. It also had popular appeal because of cameos from the era's major drivers, although these may be dated now. Released in 1966, it was ahead of its time from a technical point of view. The sound design and editing were innovative at the time and still hold up today.

Admittedly, Grand Prix does require some patience because of its length, and people who are particularly antsy may be tempted to do something else, such as research insurance quotes. However, those who stick with it are unlikely to be disappointed.

Drive

Drive is a good movie for people who like genre-blending. In addition to racing, it also features elements of heist movies and adventure flicks. The all-star cast is led by Ryan Gosling as an unnamed stunt performer turned getaway driver. Drive was released in 2011 and received accolades at multiple film festivals just prior.

Le Mans

Legendary actor Steve McQueen was himself a tidy racer, and Le Mans was a passion project intended to express his love for the sport. Focusing on action rather than dialogue, it allows the audience to vicariously experience the emotion and stress of high-level racing. Le Mans also has historical significance as it preserves one Endurance racing's greatest eras for future generations. Released in 1971, it is a perennial classic.

Winning

Like Le Mans, Winning stars an actor with a history in the sport of racing, in this case Paul Newman. Racing is the backdrop for a personal story about family troubles, and though the story is not the most engaging, Newman elevates the material, giving a masterful performance. Whatever the script may be lacking, the racing scenes are exceptionally well done.

Days of Thunder

Tom Cruise didn't have a racing background before starring in Days of Thunder, but the role seems to have inspired him to take up the sport as a hobby. There are some legitimate criticisms to make of it, but nevertheless, the film remains influential, even inspiring real-life racing livery.

Cannonball Run

The tone of racing movies can run the gamut. Some are serious, while others are silly and fun. Released in the early '80s and featuring a cavalcade of popular actors from the decade just prior, Cannonball Run is on the latter end of the spectrum. Sometimes it's refreshing to watch a movie that doesn't take itself too seriously.

The Love Bug

Serious racing fans may scoff at this one, but if you're looking for a family-friendly racing film, it's hard to do much better. Admittedly, the plot about the Volkswagen Beetle with inexplicable feelings and consciousness that becomes a racing sensation is silly, but what really makes this a great movie is its practical effects. In the '60s when this movie was made, there was no such thing as computer-generated imagery, so if you wanted the car in your movie to be able to fly across a body of water, you had to find a way to really get that chassis airborne. The fact that this movie featured a real car gives the movie some substance and, ironically, gives Herbie, the vehicle of the title, more personality than in the soulless CGI update released several decades later. The Love Bug may well be the best racing movie for people who don't like racing movies.

If you're looking for family-friendly racing films and don't mind computer animation, Cars is another good pick, for obvious reasons.