80s Movies About Racing

Ten films where the plot is mostly an excuse to go faster.

Entries
10
Category
Film
Updated
  1. Three fedoras on the dashboard of a gold convertible parked outside a desert casino.

    10. Cannonball Run II

    Hal Needham · 1984

    The last feature film appearances of Dean Martin and Frank Sinatra, and the final time the Rat Pack shared a screen. Siskel noted the actual race happens mostly offscreen, in animation. Sinatra gave his fee to charity. Smart man.

  2. A white stock car numbered 7 parked alone on a banked oval track, a cowboy hat on its roof.

    09. Stroker Ace

    Hal Needham · 1983

    Burt Reynolds turned down Terms of Endearment, the part that won Jack Nicholson an Oscar, to make this NASCAR comedy with his buddy. Dale Earnhardt cameos. Reynolds later said this is where he lost the audience. The #7 car was still cool.

  3. A dirt bike airborne over a supercross jump, mud spraying from the rear wheel, stadium lights behind.

    08. Winners Take All

    Fritz Kiersch · 1987

    Two young supercross riders, a rivalry, a love interest, and a tagline asking whether you're afraid of winning. It flopped and got panned; one critic said the real stars were the anonymous stunt riders. She was right, and they're worth it.

  4. A lone skateboard bombing down a steep, winding canyon road toward a distant finish banner.

    07. Thrashin'

    David Winters · 1986

    Downhill skateboard racing with a gang war bolted on. Josh Brolin leads, Tony Hawk and Christian Hosoi skate, the Red Hot Chili Peppers play. Johnny Depp almost got a part; the director tried three times and the producer said no.

  5. A dented stock car in a dusty pit lane with six small mismatched sneakers lined up along its bumper.

    06. Six Pack

    Daniel Petrie · 1982

    Kenny Rogers as a stock-car driver who catches six orphans stripping his car and takes them on the circuit instead of to the cops. Diane Lane and Anthony Michael Hall are among the kids. It sounds like a Kenny Rogers song because it basically is.

  6. A sleek black futuristic sports car with glowing headlights on an empty desert highway at night, heat shimmer rising.

    05. The Wraith

    Mike Marvin · 1986

    A stranger in a black Dodge M4S Turbo Interceptor rolls into an Arizona town and starts beating the gang that runs the street races, permanently. Charlie Sheen, Sherilyn Fenn, wall-to-wall synths. The car is the star and it knows it.

  7. Two road racing bicycles leaning against a guardrail on a winding Colorado mountain pass, red rock canyons behind them.

    04. American Flyers

    John Badham · 1985

    Kevin Costner, two years before The Untouchables, racing his brother through the Rockies in the Hell of the West. Steve Tesich wrote it, and he'd already won an Oscar for the bike movie Breaking Away. The man knew where to put the hills.

  8. Two BMX bikes mid-trick on a glittering school-gym dance floor under a disco ball, streamers hanging from the rafters.

    03. Rad

    Hal Needham · 1986

    A BMX kid must choose between the SATs and a race called Helltrack, and there is no wrong answer. Critics hated it, a generation memorized it, and the prom scene with two kids dancing on bikes is the most sincere thing on this list.

  9. A black sports car and a fake ambulance parked side by side at a desert gas station at dawn, a checkered flag tied to the pump.

    02. The Cannonball Run

    Hal Needham · 1981

    Based on a real outlaw cross-country race and written by the guy who invented it, Brock Yates. Burt, Roger Moore spoofing Bond, Jackie Chan in a Subaru, bloopers over the credits. It was the sixth-biggest movie of 1981. Of course it was.

  10. A long, low top fuel dragster idling at a starting line, its rear tires smoking, with a pink racing helmet resting on the cowl.

    01. Heart Like a Wheel

    Jonathan Kaplan · 1983

    Bonnie Bedelia as Shirley Muldowney, who became a top fuel drag-racing champion in a sport that did not want her. Golden Globe nod, Oscar nod for costumes, box-office faceplant. Muldowney said it missed her life but was very good for the sport.

Honorable mentions

  • Two glowing neon motorcycles racing across a black grid, leaving solid walls of colored light behind them.

    Tron

    Steven Lisberger · 1982

    Technically a video game, but the Light Cycle sequence is the most influential race of the decade. Two glowing bikes, a grid, and walls of light. Every racing game since has been chasing it.

Dishonorable mentions

  • A sad clown horn bolted to the hood of a stalled race car on a rainy highway shoulder.

    Speed Zone

    Jim Drake · 1989

    The third Cannonball movie, with John Candy and much of SCTV, made about $3 million and won Brooke Shields a Razzie. Roger Ebert gave it zero stars and pointed out that speeding cars, on their own, are not funny. He was correct.

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