IMAX film brings fans real-life NASCAR racing

LOS ANGELES -- It doesn't seem right, really, paying $12 for such a priceless experience. And I'm thrifty, probably even cheap by some folks' standards, so I was rather skeptical.

If I'm gonna drop 12 bones (word is it'll cost $7.50 in most theatres) for 50 minutes of entertainment, it best raise the hair on my neck and damn near melt my underwear.

	Marty Smith

Somehow, IMAX did it.

I'm at the racetrack 120 days a year, have seen all this sport has to offer in real time. So for NASCAR 3D: The IMAX Experience, to have impressed me like it did, I feel certain it'll reduce even the most cynical race fans to giddy eight-year olds on Christmas morning.

That's how I felt last December in Manhattan, when shown a five-minute sneak-peak preview during banquet week. I was floored by it. So going into the March 3 premiere in L.A., my expectations were astronomical. Probably too high.

I honestly expected to be disappointed, but only momentarily, during certain on-track footage, did my interest wane. Yours won't. The three-dimensional aspects of the film took everyone aback, regardless their level of NASCAR knowledge.

"I got out of seeing the movie for the first time and I was speechless," said Lowe's Chevrolet driver Jimmie Johnson. "It took me a few minutes to kind of get my mind around it. There was so much eye candy in it.

"It gives a good overview of what our sport is all about. People who don't know anything about NASCAR will walk away with a new appreciation for what we do, I think. Fans will like it because it's just cool."

From the very beginning and throughout the production, director Simon Wincer and producers Douglas "Disco" Hylton and Lorne Orleans do a masterful job of placing the viewer inside the race.

You're splashed with water, doused with Victory Lane champagne, even a member of the pre-race flyover. Oh, and look out, here comes a wayward tire straight into your wheelhouse.

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Johnson, Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt, Jr., Kurt Busch, Brian Vickers and Johnny Sauter were all seated in my row at LA's Universal City theatre. Robby Gordon was directly in front of me.

They live this movie every weekend, so they had every right to scoff if it wasn't legit. They didn't. They were grinning like schoolboys at a peep show.

"It was great at giving an inside look at what we do," said Sauter, driver of the America Online Chevrolet. "It was much more realistic than 'Days of Thunder.'"

Uh, yeah. Days of Thunder is to IMAX as Pamela Anderson is to your wife: It's made up. This is the real thing.

How real?

"(My wife) Judy has been around this sport about as long as I have, and she got sweaty hands and got really nervous about the shots from inside the car, especially the shots from the car in the draft," said team owner Richard Childress. "She's never experienced that side of the sport, and the movie really showed her what these guys do."

	Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Kiefer Sutherland at the IMAX premiere. Credit: Getty Images

People forget that race cars don't simply appear out of nowhere. The film includes extensive educational footage detailing the intricacies of race preparation.

Suddenly, you get a true respect for just how many folks are impacted by a crash. Suddenly, you know exactly why drivers so readily thank the boys back at the shop.

There is in-shop footage from Gibbs, Childress, Roush and DEI. Speaking of DEI, Teresa Earnhardt makes a brief audio cameo during the film. This is significant, considering that she's said little publicly since her late husband's death more than three years ago.

Earnhardt, Jr., Johnson, Greg Biffle and Ryan Newman, among others, are all featured in voice-overs, but Kiefer Sutherland narrates the majority of the film. His smooth delivery is a stark contrast to the hair-raising roar of race engines.

That's the best part. The sound. Unless you've been of pit road when the Anthem ends and the engines begin, you've never experienced sound like this. It's Days of Thunder with assistance from BALCO.

Considering the true feel for the sport one gets from this film, it amazes me that Wincer -- a jolly Australian, famous for directing the Lonesome Dove mini-series and Free Willy -- had never so much as watched a NASCAR race before the 2003 Daytona 500. Ditto for my man Disco.

One year, and they pull this thing off?

ALSO  For more on the IMAX project, check out our special page devoted to the film.

Amazing. Take it from me, it's worth your money.

Marty Smith is a senior writer for NASCAR.COM. His column appears each Thursday.

The opinions expressed are solely of the writer.