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Reel Racing: R-Rated Movie Sponsorships

It hit me for this column that we really don’t have many R-rated movies that ever featured on paint schemes, do we?

Some sequels to R-rated movies, like Blues Brothers 2000, have shown up on cars, but I found that exactly 10 movies not admitting anyone under 17 without an adult have been a sponsor.

Away we go:

Terminator 3: Rise of the Machines (2003)

Our first entrant on this list comes in the form of dual schemes at Daytona International Speedway in the summer of 2003, when the third film in the Terminator franchise was being promoted. Seven years passed between James Cameron’s first and second installments (1984 and 1991), and then 12 more years ensued until the third installment came out.

Who else to run the first R-rated scheme … than Michael Waltrip. Right?

The very next race, this time for the Cup Series, Jamie McMurray had the same backing:

Personally, I lean toward the McMurray scheme over Waltrip’s, but both are pretty sick and evoke the scenes of Terminators peeling their artificial skin back to reveal the metal exoskeleton underneath, though in this case it’s the wrap on the cars.

The Passion of the Christ (2004)

No matter what, this will always been the funniest and most bizarre movie sponsorship. Ever.

This has nothing to do with the movie, movie’s subject or driver. This just has everything to do with the otherwise cheery scheme — fun colors, blue skies, etc. — being raced to promote Mel Gibson’s insanely violent and controversial movie.

I have nothing wrong with graphic violence in movies, mind you, but the scheme is kind of genuinely misleading and therefore hilarious. Should’ve had a crown of thorns in place of Bobby Labonte‘s name on the rail or going around the roof.

The Punisher (2004)

An extremely fun duo of leads — Thomas Jane and John Travolta — in The Punisher meant that we were bound to get a cool scheme out of it, right?

Right.

Where the scheme for The Passion of the Christ was a bit misdirecting with its blue skies, Brendan Gaughan‘s livery for The Punisher laid it all out there: Punisher skull on the hood. Bloodstains and geysers coming from the front and back of the car. Standout, Kodak-yellow No. 77s. Blood-red rims. This is easily my favorite of the 10 on this list and it’s not particularly close.

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Death Toll (2008)

Very few photos exist of Chad McCumbee‘s truck promoting Death Toll, like, two years before the movie came out. One of the most prolific rappers of his time, plus the dude from La Bamba, co-star in something that kinda seems like it went direct-to-video.

Instead of this, which from all online ratings appears to have bad ratings, check out the 1998 film Belly, which also stars DMX and has one of the most killer openings of all time. Shoutout to my buddy who screened it at a local theater here in Richmond — had never seen it and I’m glad I did.

Mirrors (2008)

Another negatively-received movie! 16% on Rotten Tomatoes for this Kiefer Sutherland horror that was one of three movies that ended up on the hood of Hall of Fame Racing’s (remember them?) No. 96 car, along with Rush Hour 3 and Journey to the Center of the Earth.

The difference is … well, there is no difference, because all three of those movies are, um, not good (barring my sentimental attachment to Journey).

After failing to qualify for the first Pocono Raceway event in 2008, JJ Yeley ran out of fuel a few laps shy of the full distance and finished 39th in this scheme. Should’ve had the hood graphic on the bumper too, to scare competition away.

Immortals (2011)

See the featured image of this article for a photo of this kick-ass scheme.

AJ Allmendinger drove this at Texas Motor Speedway to promote this not-so-well-received Greek mythos flick that had a pretty great roster of stars:

  • Henry Cavill, but before he was cast as Superman
  • Isabel Lucas, after starring in the second Transformers
  • Mickey Rourke, who really needs no context
  • John Hurt, best known for his roles in The Elephant Man, Harry Potter and as the chestburster victim in Ridley Scott’s Alien

Wasn’t supposed to be a great movie, but I do love the scheme and the movie did come out on 11/11/11. Great marketing gimmick.

The Counselor (2013)

Look at that segue! I mentioned Ridley Scott in the section above, and here’s a Ridley Scott film! This is the inevitable Tomy Drissi segment of any list like this, as with his positions in Hollywood advertising — and racing, of course — he’s run plenty of movie cars.

Not a flashy scheme and not a movie that was super well-received upon release, though it has seemed to have gotten a critical reevaluation of late. It’s a good cast — Brad Pitt, Michael Fassbender (a racer himself), Cameron Diaz, Javier Barden — and has a couple infamous scenes.

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Straight Outta Compton (2015)

This might be one of my favorite movie-themed cars to ever exist, period. The scheme is really simple but solid, and is styled after the Straight Outta Compton movie logos — which, in turn, refer back to the Parental Advisory stickers put on albums.

Drissi also piloted this car, but to have the movie logos, plus all five members of N.W.A.’s names on it, is pretty sick. I recreated this scheme in good old NASCAR ’15: Victory Edition back in the day.

No Escape (2015)

I haven’t seen this movie, but judging by the other three I’ve watched from director John Erick Dowdle (The Poughkeepsie Tapes, Quarantine and As Above, So Below), I can’t imagine it’s a very fun time. Brett Moffitt randomly had this movie on his Front Row Motorsports car at Bristol Motor Speedway in 2015.

I’ve read this movie is “borderline xenophobic”, so that really doesn’t win many points with me or most people, but if nothing else it’s pretty cool that Pierce Brosnan got to be on a race car.

It’s almost October, so watch As Above, So Below instead — incredibly underrated, tense found-footage horror that came out the year prior. Didn’t get much love upon release, but it’s become a cult classic — if you needed any more convincing, it’s a group of cave explorers who venture into the French catacombs (which are already terrifying themselves) and encounter the nine circles of hell along the way. Catacombs meet cave exploration meet Dante’s Inferno. Watch it!

Mile 22 (2018)

The most recent dates to six years ago, when Bubba Wallace had the Peter Berg – Mark Wahlberg team-up Mile 22 on his car at Pocono. That No. 43 famously crashed pretty hard at the Tricky Triangle, but the movie wasn’t supposed to be that good either.

Personally, I never got around to Mile 22 — its poor reviews came on the heels of Berg and Wahlberg having two excellent movies together (Deepwater Horizon and Patriots Day) back in 2016.

Follow @adamncheek

About the author

Adam Cheek joined Frontstretch as a contributing writer in January 2019. A 2020 graduate of VCU, he covered sports there and later spent a year and a half as a sports host on 910 the Fan in Richmond, VA. He's freelanced for Richmond Magazine and the Richmond Times-Dispatch, and also hosts the "Adam Cheek's Sports Week" podcast. Adam has followed racing since the age of three, inheriting the passion from his grandfather, who raced in amateur events up and down the East Coast in the 1950s.

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Deacon Blues

Thanks, Adam, great theme; your Reel Racing feature is always entertaining!

DoninAjax

The closest NA$CAR gets to real racing is reel racing!