You know, when I was figuring out what to write this week, the Bristol Dirt Race swung me in the direction of checking out the portrayals of racing on dirt in motorsports films.
Outside of blasting Alice in Chains’ iconic 1992 album Dirt all week long, I wanted to prep for the weekend in another way besides having tracks like “Them Bones,” “Rain When I Die,” “Rooster” and “Would?” on repeat … but was slightly foiled.
Turns out there’s not nearly as many dirt-populated racing films as I expected, but let’s take a look anyway.
Arguably the most famous racing-on-dirt instance in a motorsports film isn’t even the main focal point of said production: the “turn right to go left” sequence in 2006’s Cars.
Likely one of the most-quoted racing movie moments — and most accessible, considering its popularity and rating — it still applies to reality. Lightning McQueen also uses it to save his car during the climactic championship race between him, Strip Weathers and Chick Hicks.
We’ll see these NASCAR Cup and Craftsman Truck series drivers throwing their vehicles into the corners at the half-mile track, turning left and then right as they slide through the turns.
Though I was a huge fan of the Trucks’ “Mudsummer Classic” at Eldora Speedway and would personally prefer the tour visit a permanent dirt track for such a race, I thoroughly enjoyed last year’s Easter Sunday race and can’t wait for this week. The Tyler Reddick – Chase Briscoe battle was an instant classic.
In two consecutive years to close the past decade, we got a couple of chiefly dirt-themed productions: 2018’s Dirt and 2019’s Trading Paint.
Dirt featured Kevin Dillon of Platoon and The Blob fame, who had also portrayed Doors drummer John Densmore in The Doors. Ntare Guma Mbaho Mwine (Blood Diamond, Queen of Katwe), Matthew Glave (Argo, First Man) and others also star.
In fairness, it’s an off-road truck racing team rather than our typical motorsports films, but Dirt is a fun movie and is also underseen — solid fare, for sure.
Trading Paint is on the opposite end of that spectrum: more names attached to it, what with the likes of John Travolta, Michael Madsen and Shania Twain, but its quality is far lower than that of Dirt.
Sure, Travolta and Twain are icons of their respective industries, and Madsen is no slouch himself. Between his status…
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