Whenever one hears NASCAR and Hollywood in the same sentence, it evokes certain famous movies. This includes the Tom Cruise and Nicole Kidman featured Days of Thunder, the comedy Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby, the iconic Cars franchise, the Herbie franchise, among others. However, NASCAR does take the opportunity to try to promote other films.
There have been many occasions where teams have helped promote some movies. One of the most famous, or infamous examples, is the 1997 T-Rex car from Hendrick Motorsports. Ignoring the controversy surrounding it, the car and team were promoting the blockbuster The Lost World: Jurassic Park.
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Of course, this is hardly the first time the sport has promoted movies, and it won’t be the last. A year earlier, Michael Waltrip and Wood Brothers Racing promoted the Star Trek: First Contact movie. Later on, when the Star Wars prequels were released, they also jumped on the NASCAR bandwagon. On this occasion, the franchise teamed up with Richard Petty Motorsports and even Hendrick Motorsports. Later on, in 2004, Ward Burton ran a livery promoting the animated movie, Shark Tale.
Are there any other examples in NASCAR?
In 1998, the science fiction action film, Small Soldiers, hit the screens. Over here, Tony Stewart and Bobby Labonte were more than willing to promote the film. Labonte also helped promote the Wachowski Brothers’ movie, Speed Racer. Even Disney got in on the action, and with the help of Bill Elliott, promoted their now beloved classic, The Lion King. Elliott would go on to promote another movie, the Joel Schumacher directed Batman Forever.
Additionally, Dale Earnhardt Jr and Jimmie Johnson helped promote Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice. In 2013, Ryan Newman in the #39 car helped promote the Smurfs sequel. Kyle Busch also helped advertise the fourth installment of the Indiana Jones franchise.
In 2011, Mike Wallace helped promote the movie, Cowboys vs Aliens, however bizarre that movie sounds. Finally, on a hilarious note, David Ragan, Greg Biffle, Ty Dillon, Casey Mears, Michael McDowell, and Ben Kennedy promoted SpongeBob.
Let’s see how the NASCAR-Hollywood collaborations work in the future.
READ MORE: How Jeff Gordon’s Banned T-Rex Car Was Accidentally Produced by Hendrick Motorsports
