It feels like ages ago that snow fell at Auto Club Speedway earlier this year. Now, it’s actually almost winter, and though it doesn’t look like I’ll have a white Christmas where I live, it’s time to delve into the world of holiday films and make them motorsports-related.
I certainly have my gauntlet of films I run through each year: annual rewatches, some first-time views to add them to the all-time holiday film ranking and some short films too, but it always culminates in a (usually) Christmas Eve triple feature with my family: It’s a Wonderful Life, Die Hard and The Night Before. Drama, action and comedy, respectively, and it’s the perfect lead-in to Dec. 25 and the final week of the year.
With that in mind, I’m gonna do my best to shoehorn racing into these various holiday concepts without being too it’s-just-the-plot-of-the-original-movie-but-with-racing!, so here goes.
I’m not sure how many of these would make great double features quite like Home Alone and its sequel, or Silent Night, Deadly Night and its sequel, would, but I’ll hold out hope one of these somehow gets made.
The Night Before (the Daytona 500)
Truly the greatest underappreciated Christmas film, The Night Before stars Seth Rogen, Joseph Gordon-Levitt and Anthony Mackie as three best friends going out for one more night of debauchery on Christmas Eve before finally settling down into their respective lives, all while seeking what’s supposedly the ultimate holiday party.
For the three leads, from Cup drivers in recent years, I’m going with Brendan Gaughan, Ryan Blaney and either Tyler Reddick or Denny Hamlin as the three leads, primarily based off the personalities of the actual movie’s trio of main characters.
I’d tweak the plot it so that the season’s well behind them, but it takes place after the awards ceremony. The three intrepid heroes are headed out on one more night of celebration of another season in the books before calling it an offseason, going out on the town in Nashville in search of the storied afterparty that awaits: full of NASCAR legends, huge celebrities and anything for which one could wish.
Scratch Nashville, change the setting to New York — one, because I’m a sucker for Christmas films in New York; two, that’s where The Night Before is actually set; and three, I feel like even more fun could be had with the environment there. Hit up Radio City Music Hall or crash into the Rockefeller…
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