How well do you know your Hollywood NASCAR drivers?
Find out with our stock car film quiz!
Monday, March 16, 2009
It wasn’t long after the heart-throbbing action of NASCAR began wowing racing fans throughout America that Hollywood attempted to recreate its excitement on the big screen. Time and again the sport has provided the backdrop for both high speed cinematic comedy and tense drama. It has also given a wide range of Hollywood stars the opportunity to take a turn behind the wheel playing NASCAR speedsters. But you might be surprised at just who has taken the ride.
See if you can match the following stock car characters to their films and the performers who brought them to life.
DRIVERS
1. Steve Grayson, the hard-driving, sultry-singing king of the stock car circuit, who is equally adept behind the wheel of his high-performance Barracuda as he is behind a microphone warbling out a tune
2. Brewster Baker, a down-and-out loner, whose dreams of a comeback on the NASCAR circuit are complicated by six thieving orphans who insist on becoming his makeshift crew and helping him become a champion driver
3. Elroy ‘Junior’ Jackson, a fiercely independent stock car driver who learned his trade running moonshine on the back roads of North Carolina, determined to rise to the top of the stock car world without selling out his principles
4. Rick Bowman, a renegade street racer lured into the stock car world to juice up the Sunday night races at Ascot Park raceway, home of the legendary ‘figure eight’ track and its high impact suicide intersection
5. Wendell Scott, a returning WWII vet, who is a natural behind the wheel of a race car and determined to become America’s first black stock car racing champion
6. Stroker Ace, a smooth-talking, wise-cracking, woman-chasing, three-time NASCAR champion, who after burning his bridges with every legitimate sponsor, is forced to sign with Chicken Pit fast-food chain owner Clyde Torkle and do promotions in a chicken suit
7. Maggie Peyton, the first college-educated member of Team Peyton, a three-generation family of championship stock car racers whose career as an assistant producer at ESPN is sidetracked when she meets Herbie, a champion stock car Volkswagen with a mind of its own
8. Ricky Bobby, a champion driver with a smokin’-hot wife, two macho sons, and a devoted best friend willing to do anything for his comrade-in-car, who believes his legacy is to be the fastest man alive
9. Dave “The Fireball” Owens, a young, up-and-coming racer whose efforts to make a name for himself on the stock car circuit are endangered after he is tricked into running moonshine
10. Mitch Cooper, a former stock car champion, who after three winless years decides to take on a new role as a mentor to an aspiring driver. Problem is he can’t take his eyes off his protege’s beautiful wife
11. Tommy Callahan, a loose cannon, who after getting thrown off the NASCAR circuit because of his dangerous antics, tries to reestablish his career by joining a low-budget stunt car show
12. Richard Petty, in a biopic chronicling the racing careers of both Petty and his father Lee, as Dad reminisces about how the Petty family became legends in the world of stock car racing after a nasty crash puts son Richard in the hospital with a concussion
13, Mike Marsh, the no-nonsense lead driver of a championship stock car team whose members seem to encounter more twists and turns in their love lives than on the track
14. Cole Trickle, a cocky, wannabe NASCAR driver whose temper seems to overshadow his talent and may just sabotage his plans to take the racing world by storm
15. Jim Douglas, an aging driver whose attempts to prove he’s still got what it takes to succeed behind the wheel pivots on a very temperamental 1963 Volkswagen that seems to have a mind of its own
STARS
Frankie Avalon
Jeff Bridges
James Caan
Rory Calhoun
Tom Cruise
Dick Davalos
Fabian
Will Farrell
Dean Jones
Lindsay Lohan
Richard Petty
Elvis Presley
Richard Pryor
Burt Reynolds
Kenny Rogers
ANSWERS
1 Elvis Presley SPEEDWAY
2 Kenny Rogers SIX PACK
3 Jeff Bridges THE LAST AMERICAN HERO
4 Dick Davalos PIT STOP a.k.a THE WINNER
5 Richard Pryor GREASED LIGHTNING
6 Burt Reynolds STROKER ACE
7 Lindsay Lohan HERBIE FULLY LOADED
8 Will Farrell TALLADEGA NIGHTS: THE BALLAD OF RICKY BOBBY
9 Frankie Avalon FIREBALL 500
10 Rory Calhoun THUNDER IN CAROLINA a.k.a “HARD DRIVIN’
11 Fabian THUNDER ALLEY
12 Richard Petty 43: THE PETTY STORY
13 James Caan RED LINE 7000
14 Tom Cruise DAYS OF THUNDER
15 Dean Jones THE LOVE BUG
FILMS
THUNDER IN CAROLINA
a.k.a “HARD DRIVIN’
1960 Howco International Pictures
RED LINE 7000
1965 Paramount Pictures
FIREBALL 500
1966 American International Pictures
THUNDER ALLEY
1967 American International Pictures
SPEEDWAY
1968 MGM
PIT STOP a.k.a THE WINNER
1969 Jack Hill Productions
THE LOVE BUG
1969 Walt Disney Pictures
43: THE PETTY STORY
1972 Victory Lane
THE LAST AMERICAN HERO
1973 20th Century Fox
GREASED LIGHTNING
1977 Warner Bros.
SIX PACK
1982 20th Century Fox
STROKER ACE
1983 Warner Bros.
DAYS OF THUNDER
1990 Paramount Pictures
HERBIE FULLY LOADED
2005 Disney Pictures
TALLADEGA NIGHTS:
THE BALLAD OF RICKY BOBBY
2006 Columbia Pictures
