If you’re a petrol-head craving the sound of a revving engine, a life-long Brad Pitt fan, or both, you’ve probably already seen F1: a race movie that’s been lapping the competition ever since its release at the beginning of summer 2025. Like Joseph Kosinski’s previous film, Top Gun: Maverick, it’s a movie for anyone who appreciates high-spec cinema and the kind of tactile action that doesn’t rely too heavily on CGI.
With Pitt in the driving seat, Kerry Condon and Javier Bardem in the pit, Kosinski at the controls, and Jerry Bruckheimer and the great Lewis Hamilton rounding out the crew, everything has been precisely calibrated for F1 to become a roaring success. If you’re yet to watch it and looking for a warm-up, or you’re just dying for a movie that lets you go another lap in the driving seat, use our guide below to discover ten of the best racing movies ever made, and find out where to watch them.
Rush (2013)
Rush is a movie not just for race fans but for fans of Chris Hemsworth, the great German actor Daniel Brühl, and anyone who likes the ‘70s nostalgia of films like American Hustle and The Nice Guys.
The story of Rush focuses on the rivalry and begrudging respect between Niki Lauda (Brühl), the Ferrari legend, a spiky but principled Austrian, and James Hunt (Hemsworth), a handsome but cocky Englishman, in a movie set largely during the fateful 1976 Formula 1 season. It’s a gripping period movie from director Ron Howard, and one that Brühl, in a career-best performance, was unlucky to miss out on an Academy Award nomination for.
Ford v Ferrari (2019)
Ford v Ferrari is one of the best dad-core movies of the last ten years, and if you like the kind of story where a scrappy team played by impossibly charismatic actors shows the creaky establishment guys how it’s done, you’re going to love everything about it. Think sports classics like Cool Runnings and Moneyball.
Set in 1966, Ford v Ferrari follows the prickly yet endearing friendship between Carroll Shelby (Matt Damon), a retired champ turned designer, and the maverick race car driver, Ken Miles (a brilliant Christian Bale). Ferrari once again play the antagonists in what is a surprisingly moving account of the Ford racing team’s attempt to end a period of Italian dominance at the 24 hours of Le Mans. The ending usually leaves me with something in my eye…
Senna (2010)
Senna is simply one of the best sports docs ever made. Looking back on it now, I find it hard to imagine the likes of Rush, F1, or even Drive To Survive existing without it. If you’re a fan of any of those, or sports docs in general, I fully recommend checking it out.
The movie is an essay-like documentary from Asif Kapadia, the British director behind the similarly great bio-docs Amy and Diego Maradona. Kapadia doesn’t use interviews or talking heads in Senna, which details the life, brilliance, and tragic death of the Brazilian driver Ayrton Senna, a three-time winner of the F1 championship. It’s a movie that successfully elevates the sport of racecar driving into something approaching art.
Speed Racer (2008)
Speed Racer is a dazzling, digital sugar-rush (or headache, depending on the viewer) that fans of eye-popping visuals should try out. Based on a Japanese anime from the 1960s, it stars Emile Hirsch as a plucky young driver looking to follow in his brother’s footsteps by racing against the crooked Royalton Industries team. But don’t sweat the narrative too much; this movie is all about the vibes.
Speed Racer baffled audiences and critics on release, but has recently acquired low-key cult status. Any work bold enough to do its own thing and loud enough to stick around will always get that kind of reassessment sooner or later. The Wachowski sisters’ movie has done just that, and deservedly so.
Gran Turismo (2023)
One of the more recent entries on this list, Gran Turismo is far from perfect, but it’s a solid, no-nonsense sports movie that fans of racing films will easily like. The story is a loose adaptation of Jann Mardenborough’s unlikely real-life journey from online GT gamer to professional racecar driver.
F1 director Joseph Kosinski was initially approached to direct, but the job eventually fell to Neill Blomkamp, director of District 9, who does a great job with the race scenes and, thanks to a fine performance from David Harbour, a pretty decent job with everything else.
Ferrari (2023)
I always had the feeling that Michael Mann–lover of all things slick, complex, and potentially dangerous–would eventually make a racing film. Enter Ferrari, a soulful biopic starring Adam Driver as the legendary designer and car manufacturer Enzo Ferrari. The movie deals with a crucial time for the company: Ferrari mourning his son and facing possible bankruptcy in the lead-up to a fateful Mille Miglia in 1957.
This one will, of course, be interesting for fans of Mann’s more recent movies (like Blackhat and Miami Vice) but also racing fans with an interest in the history of the sport.
Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby (2006)
If you’re looking for a racing movie that takes itself a lot less seriously than most on this list, Talladega Nights will probably be more your speed. Anchorman duo Adam McKay and Will Ferrell’s second collaboration is still one of the funniest things they’ve ever done.
The movie stars Ferrell as Ricky Bobby, a championship NASCAR driver who suffers a crash and must overcome his demons to get back on the track. Some of the jokes haven’t aged as well as others, but just two years before reteaming on Step Brothers, the Ferrell and John C. Reilly double-act is very much in its prime here.
Logan Lucky (2017)
Similar to Talladega, Logan Lucky is probably best described as a comedy set in the race world rather than a pure race movie itself, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t all kinds of fun. It’s fitting that the nominatively determined Adam Driver features twice on this list, this time as one half of the Logan brothers in this NASCAR-set heist movie.
A sharply written movie that any fan of Steven Soderbergh-type films will easily enjoy, it can’t quite compare stylistically to anything in the aforementioned director’s snare-tight Oceans series, but with Channing Tatum, Daniel Craig, and Riley Keough rounding out a charismatic team, it has a real good time trying.
The Final Destination (2009)
David R. Ellis’ The Final Destination is more for the horror fans out there, but the incredible opening sequence makes it, IMO, a worthwhile addition to any podium of racing movies. Look no further than the incredible NASCAR-set opening sequence, which seems like such an obvious and fruitful place for gnarly decapitations that it’s only surprising it took the franchise as many films as it did to dream it up.
The Final Destination is confusingly the fourth movie in the series, but I think it’s one of the best ones—it’s also a great watch for anyone who ever saw a race and wondered what it would be like to see one of those wheels fly off and make its way into the audience…
Top Gun: Maverick (2022)
Perhaps it’s cheating, but anyone with a need for more speed after seeing Joseph Kosinski’s latest film could do far worse than revisiting its predecessor, Top Gun: Maverick. Reprising one of his most famous roles, Tom Cruise stars as a Navy pilot who must take to the skies for one last mission (at least for now).
So many of the building blocks that made F1 great are all present and accounted for: the practical effects, the incredible sound design, the sight of a man in his 60s showing all the cocky whippersnappers how it’s done. It should be seen as big and as loud as humanly possible.
