Why Are So Many Racing Movies Terrible -- Its Not the Car #19

“Driving a race car,” Sylvester Stallone once said, “is terrifying.”
Aw, Sly, buddy-that just makes me sad, you know? A big ol’ dollop of Guy Fieri bummer sauce. You’re missing out! It’s only terrifying if you’re doing it wrong!
Speaking of: What if you made a horrendously expensive movie about IndyCar while knowing almost nothing about the sport? What if, a quarter-century later, that film was widely held up as one of the worst in history?
Here now, the story of Stallone’s 2001 cinematic assterpiece, “Driven.” Little-known trivia! Joyous dissections of inaccuracy! Awful behind-the-scenes insights! And at the end, Sam makes Ross and Jeff act out lines from the film, because he is clearly a broadcasting nightmare and should never be allowed to run anything.
This show’s format rotates weekly, because squirrel. We call this format “INTC Movie Club.” If you like it, don’t worry, we’ll do it again. Probably with “Sharknado.”
Related Trivia: Ross, a former IndyCar driver, seems to loathe this film with every fiber of his being. As far as I can tell, Jeff simply finds it an amusing trainwreck, like watching a dog try to bake a cake.
Unrelated Trivia: Sam’s wife no longer lets him bake anything in the house.
This episode was produced by Mike Perlman.
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ABOUT THE SHOW:
It’s Not the Car is a podcast about people and speed. We tell racing stories and leave out the boring parts.
Ross Bentley is a former IndyCar driver and an internationally renowned performance coach and author. Jeff Braun is a championship-winning race engineer. Sam Smith is an award-winning journalist and a former executive editor of Road & Track magazine. Together, we explore the emotion at the heart of the machine.
We don’t love racing for the nuts and bolts-we love it for what it asks of the bag of meat at the wheel.
New episodes every Tuesday.

[@ryanclark5254]

The worst part of every racing movie is that magical moment that they gotta go faster and just shift into the imaginary next gear.

[@BSNFabricating]

Also, if I remember right, "Driven" came out right around the same time as the CART debacle at Texas Motor Speedway, when they had to cancel the race -- a few hours before the start of the race. It was not exactly a shining moment for open wheel racing...which of course was still in the middle of The Split.

[@scottmiller1531]

You are correct. It, in fact, came out the same weekend. Talk about a 1-2 punch for CART.

[@lurker306]

I can just see William Shatner overacting the line “The! Rear! Is! Drifting!”

[@bshoke]

As a life long North American racing fan I heard about the filming during an ABC broadcast of a CART race and I eagerly awaited it’s release. When it came out I saw it in theaters. The thing that bothered me most other than starting the cars at the banquet, was the methanol catching fire in the water and rain. It’s so bad but also a guilty pleasure to this day.

[@aaronberga8803]

At first I was thinking, surely you can separate your life from the movie. Then Jeff talked to the Air Force Pilot. I was in the Navy, and I was on submarines. Every movie I watch about that environment, I just can't handle. There are so many inaccuracies. My wife refuses to watch any movie that has any submarine included in it with me. Very well done, and thanks for a new perspective on things.

[@scottmiller1531]

The tire crashing into the stands, apart from being bad CGI was also heavily criticized by many in, and out, of the sport. Keep in mind that the movie came out only 2-3 years after spectators were killed, both at MIS (CART), and Charlotte (IRL). Charlotte developed an immediate aversion to open-wheel. Though it only took a few seconds of screen time, it was massively tone deaf, and never needed to be in the movie.

[@shubashima]

"I'm going with Memo" Iconic Burt Reynolds acting

[@nottawaygarage3683]

I've watched LeMans enough to make up for the lack of audience after its release

[@barrycuda3769]

Me too ,and Grand Prix.

[@michaelostran2947]

great episode!

[@andrewprentice8857]

Won't judge me for how I drive?
The reason I love motorsports is I am completely incapable of doing what race drivers do! No ability at all.
On topic: Cheesy movies about motor racing are just something we must endure. It's probably a good thing that racecar drivers are not script writers and vice-versa.
Just pointing out that race car films are time capsules of the racing scene and technology of their time! Which is pretty cool!

[@maxj.gutsmiedl796]

Unfortunately, racing is largely strategy and precision driving. These things are very hard to show on screen. Imagine if football only had one or two big catches per game, and you tried to make a movie about it. People who go to racing movies don't have the patience to watch someone set up a pass over three laps. A great model for racing movies is the Audi movies about LeMans. Great suspense and storyline.

[@BenexMotorsportAcademy]

It is exactly the same with Gran Turismo nowdays... It could have been easily good, but I can't count how many things in it that are simple nonsense (go to Dubai to get the licence (without a licence?!), welcome in hockenheim with a picture of Barcelona's layout etc etc etc...
And many car/racing related people worked on it and they didn't have the pretentiousness to correct those things?! Can't understand.

[@mattomon1045]

I love driven it is so bad it is funny when they jump into the indy cars that are parked by a party and they steal them and starting them with no starters!