A few days ago we watched Logan Lucky, one of my favorite heist movies. It stands out because it has many of the core tropes of heist movies but in a completely different environment.
Specifically, the heist is attempted by a family in West Virginia at a Nascar race in North Carolina. This is where today’s topic divergest (but I do highly recommend Logan Lucky). The care race in the movie is a 600-mile race, basically just hours of people driving cars in a circle.
I’ve never attended a Nascar event; I’m just not interested in watching cars drive in a circle hundreds of times. The ridiculous distance loses most of its meaning due to the looping track. Granted, I can’t judge, as I haven’t attended–I’m guessing part of the thrill is the crowd energy and noise/speed of the cars.
However, I know what it’s like to drive from St. Louis to Richmond along highway 64. It’s around 800 miles, and it takes 12-15 hours.
So here’s my idea: Shut down highway 64 in both directions for a day and have a race from St. Louis to Richmond. You can drive anything you want, as fast as you want. Whoever arrives first is the winner. I wouldn’t watch the entire race, but I’d certainly tune in from time to time.
I can’t imagine this ever happening due to the logistics, danger, and potential for damage. Maybe it could work for a shorter distance, like St. Louis to Kansas City (normally a 4-hour drive). Do you think that would be more entertaining than the looping Nascar tracks?
I believe what you’re looking for is Rally Racing
Perhaps! I’m not familiar with that.
Racing is counterintuitive, while it is true oval racing is easy basically go fast turn left anyone can do that. Being easy to do is also why it is so insanely hard to be good at it, you must be millimeter perfect over and over at high speed surrounded by others that want your spot while managing tires that have a very narrow working window.
While an open road race along a highway sounds cool I doubt it would be fun to watch. It would likely have to be time trial since with no repetition there is less chance of mistakes that lead to overtaking chances. It would be like the tour de france run by robots one would get in the lead and just ride it out.
A number of movies have been made with exactly that premise…