Now we’re not talking about car chases. Or even car movies. This is a list of the best street racing movies. Flicks that feature automotive speed competition on public roadways. Most involve some form of drag racing, which is what most people think of when there’s talk about street racing, but not all. Films featuring cross country races and duels on twisty mountain roads have also made our list. Here are the 10 best street racing movies of all time, listed in alphabetical order. Let us know if we forgot any great ones.

 

 

Unlike many films on this list, Against All Odds isn’t about street racing, but it features one of the greatest public road speed contests ever put on film. Starring Beau Bridges and James Woods, the two stars race a red 1984 Porsche 911 SC Cabriolet and a black 1984 Ferrari 308 on L.A.’s twisting Sunset Boulevard, right though the heart of swanky Bel Air, one of America’s most expensive neighborhoods.

 

Sixty-eight-year-old legendary stuntman Carey Loftin, stunt driver in Steve McQueen’s car chase classic Bullitt and the stunt coordinator on Vanishing Point, drove the Ferrari in the action. And it is real action, with the cars at real speed and cameras mounted on the two sports cars. No special effects or other movie magic was used. The scene was shot on the stretch of Sunset between UCLA and the 405 Freeway on successive early Sunday mornings.

 

Produced by Francis Ford Coppola and directed by George Lucas, American Graffiti is the product of Hollywood royalty and centers around cruising and street racing in 1962 small-town America. It’s credited with reviving interest in traditional American hot rods and features many young actors that would go on to become big stars, including Ron Howard, Harrison Ford, and Richard Dreyfuss.

 

A must see, this is the most critically acclaimed film on this list, and also one of the most financially successful. Street racing is a theme throughout the movie, but it features two memorable speed contests between John Milner’s small-block Chevy powered 1932 Ford five-window (the fastest car in the Valley) and a new rival from out of town, Bob Falfa in his equally iconic black ’55 Chevy. The first race takes place after the two trade smack talk at a red light, while the second goes down with a flagman out on the deserted Paradise Road.

 

 

Directed by former stuntman Hal Needham and starting his buddy Burt Reynolds, the two were still flying high from the success of Smokey and the Bandit, Hooper, and Smokey and the Bandit 2. The comedic Cannonball Run was their fourth movie together in five years and it was another box office hit. The entire movie is a street race from New York to California, and it was written by automotive journalist Brock Yates, who organized and competed in the real Cannonball Baker Sea-to-Shining-Sea Memorial Trophy Dash, while working for Car and Driver in 1971. The real event had run a handful of times throughout the decade and Hal Needham himself took on the challenge in 1979.

 

Best known for its opening sequence featuring a black Lamborghini Countach LP400S cannonballing through the Mojave desert, its big V-12 screaming for the heavens, the movie also features many other memorable machines from the era, as well as huge Hollywood stars such as Roger Moore, Sammy Davis Jr., and Dean Martin. It was such a smash hit many less-compelling sequels and imitators followed. The Lambo used--which still exists--was owned by Ron Rice, the founder of Hawaiian Tropic.

 

 

This is one of the first street racing movies Hollywood turned out and it’s packed with fenderless flathead-powered Ford roadsters. Filmed in Los Angeles, the dialogue even references taking the cars out to the desert dry lakes for “legal” racing. Remember, there weren’t really any drag strips yet. The street action has six jalopies going for it at the same time, before a motorcycle cop shows up and a few of the racers ditch their hot rods into the fields, some driving off through the brush.

 

This film doesn’t have as many street racing scenes as some of the other hot rod movies that came along soon after, but it’s a wonderful look into the very early days of hot rodding. Hollywood and the hot-rodders were still figuring it all out. This film also gives you a great look at a brand new 1947 Buick convertible, which is featured throughout the flick.

 

 

You either love it or you hate it, but the first installment of this franchise kicked off one of the most successful in movie history and it threw kerosene on America’s import car scene, which was gaining momentum at the time. It also reignited the country’s debate about street racing, which had fallen into the background, and made NOS a household word. Though some of the dialog makes real car guys retch, there is some good action, and they did get some facts right.

 

Filled with tuner Honda Civics, the film taught America’s youth to live their lives a quarter-mile at a time and made big stars out of Vin Diesel, Paul Walker, and other members of its young cast. Its tuner cars became stars too, including a loudly painted Mitsubishi Eclipse, Toyota Supra Turbo, and third-gen (FD) Mazda RX-7. But it was Diesel’s blown and black 1970 Dodge Charger, no doubt thrown in to woo the muscle car crowd, that became iconic.

 

 

Five years before The Cannonball Run, Hollywood gave us the cross-country racing classic Gumball Rally. It’s also based on the real life Cannonball cross-country race, but Yates owned the name so the fictitious Gumball was invented. Like the real event, it started in a New York City parking garage, but ended at the Queen Mary in Long Beach, California, while the real event concluded at the Portofino Inn in nearby Redondo Beach.

 

Though best known for the line “What’s behind me is not important,” Gumball is really all about the cars and the action. A real 427 Shelby Cobra and a real Ferrari 365 GTS/4 Daytona Spider battle flat out from coast to coast, including through the streets of Manhattan, the Lincoln Tunnel, the Midwest, California’s desert, and ultimately the storm channel of Los Angeles. And they are hauling. Other notable cars include a Porsche 9ll S Targa, a Mercedes 300 SL roadster and a four-speed split-bumper Camaro on Cragars. And look for Linda Vaughn in her prime at the end.

 

 

Often described as a raunchy American Graffiti, Hollywood Knights is about a car club in Beverly Hills on Halloween night in 1965. It’s the last night their beloved hangout, Tubby’s Drive In, will exist, as it’s about to be replaced by an office building. Like American Graffiti it centers around cruising and street racing, and stars young actors that would soon make the big time, including Tony Danza and Michelle Pfeiffer.

 

There are two street races in the film, both involving a real Shelby 427 Cobra. First it takes on Danza’s supercharged yellow ’57 Chevy, which is better known as Project X from Popular Hot Rodding magazine, a car often called the most famous project car in the world. The car notoriously blew up during the filming of the race and its small block had to be rebuilt overnight. You can see the burst of coolant as it chases the Cobra. Later in the film, the Shelby takes on a supercharged big-block T-bucket. Other notable cars in this flick include a badass ’65 GTO, a ’65 Mustang convertible, a ’65 El Camino, and a few Porsche Speedsters.

 

 

With Rock and Roll and the hot rod culture coming of age along with millions of Baby Boomers, Hollywood started making car movies by the dozens. They were usually about bad boys in cool cars chasing girls and speed, and the list of films includes Hot Rod Hullabaloo, Dragstrip Girl, and Ghost of Dragstrip Hollow, which features Tommy Ivo and two of his cars. Most feature some form of street racing, and our favorite from the era is Hot Rod Gang staring John Ashley driving Bob McGee’s fenderless small-block Chevy-powered 1932 Ford roadster, one of the most important and iconic hot rods of all time.

 

The black and white flick even starts off with a couple of street races between that legendary Deuce highboy, a channeled ’32 roadster and another ’32 highboy with bobbed rear fenders. That car is also legendary, it’s the Pete Hendersen roadster, which famously raced a quarter horse years earlier. The two highboys even compete in a “curb race” which is just weird. There are other rods in the film as well, including George Barris’ Ala Kart, along with corny dialogue and bad acting.

 

 

The Mulholland Highway, in the hills above Los Angeles, is probably the most famous street racing road in the world. The twisty mountain two lane, first paved in the 1920s, quickly became a hot spot of racing and the real life action lasted well into the 1980s. Legend has it that car-crazy Hollywood stars like James Dean and Steve McQueen raced on Mulholland, and the road’s speed contests have been chronicled in magazines, newspapers, books and even movies.

 

King of the Mountain is all about racing on Mulholland. Inspired by the New West magazine article called Thunder Road in 1978 by David Barry, it’s based on real life racers including Chris Banning, who ruled the road in the late 1970s with his customized silver Porsche 911 RSR. In the film, the main character--played by Harry Hamlin--is the “Fast One,” and he drives a modified Porsche Speedster replica (silver, of course). There’s great night racing action throughout the flick, as well as many other cool cars including a Ferrari 308, a Jag E-type, a ’69 Mustang fastback, a 1979 Trans Am, and a ratty ’67 Corvette, which goes up against the Porsche in the final climactic race.

 

 

This low-budget cult classic directed by Monte Hellman depicts the hardcore street racing lifestyle better than any other film. TLBT, as it’s known, is the story of two young hippies, The Driver and The Mechanic, driving their primer-grey big-block four-speed 1955 Chevy cross-country and picking up races for money along the way. The Driver is played by music star James Taylor and The Mechanic, famous for his need to constantly check the jets of the Chevy’s carburetor, is portrayed by Dennis Wilson, the original drummer of The Beach Boys. Incredibly, in April of 1971 Esquire magazine did a cover story on the movie calling it the film of the year.

 

TLBT is so realistic it even features real LA street racers. The film’s intro shows Big Willie Robinson’s Dodge Daytona and the Brotherhood of Street Racers International. There isn’t much dialogue in Two-Lane, which rubs some folks the wrong way. In fact, actor Warren Oates’ character GTO (he drives a 1970 Pontiac GTO) does most of the talking. Three ’55 Chevys were built for filming by Richard Ruth, and one went on to be redressed and driven by Harrison Ford in American Graffiti. Another was sold at a Barrett-Jackson auction in 2015 for $159,500.