THE MOST ICONIC CAR RACES IN CINEMA HISTORY

While research has been done by the American Psychological Association into the connection between audiences being exposed to risky behaviours like driving over the speed limit and other serious activities, we must admit that these races are beyond exciting to watch.
But with so many appearing on screen over the decades, some have stood the test of time and remain etched in our minds. In this article, we'll look at three of the most iconic car race scenes in cinema history.

"I almost had you!" - The Fast and the Furious (2001)

The Fast & Furious series has grown from being a love letter to street-racing and customised supercars to a fully-fledged adrenaline ride (pun intended) featuring the longest airport runway in cinema history and a submarine outrunning a car. In fact, the New York Times found that there was an increase of almost 20% in speeding tickets in the United States the weekend after the release of a new film in the franchise.

Here, however, we're going back to the early 2000s and the scene that would set up the rest of the series. This race is the first in the history of Fast & Furious and features two main characters in Vin Diesel's Dominic Toretto and the late Paul Walker as Brian O'Conner.

This race has it all, a what's what of supercar customised within an inch of their life, including a Mazda RX-7, a Mitsubishi Eclipse, and an Acura Integra. It becomes an iconic scene as it sets up the fast-paced editing with hard cuts as the action progresses, and with Paul Walker's line after he comes in second: "Dude, I almost had you!" That in turn leads to Vin Diesel's incredibly quotable speech, finishing with: "As...