> ## Content Index > Fetch the complete content index at: https://www.the-race.com/llms.txt > Use this file to discover other available public pages before exploring further. # Verdict: What we want see from Days Of Thunder 2 - URL: https://www.the-race.com/extra/verdict-what-we-want-see-from-days-of-thunder-2/ - Published: 2026-08-26T15:05:40.000Z - Updated: 2026-08-26T15:44:19.000Z - Description: A Days of Thunder sequel is finally on the horizon after 36 years, so our writers have their say on what it needs to get right. - Author: The Race Team - Tags: Extra It looks like *Days of Thunder 2* is getting the green light. With [reports](https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/movies/movie-news/jonathan-levine-direct-days-of-thunder-2-tom-cruise-1236653926/?ref=the-race.com) that Paramount is moving ahead with a sequel, Tom Cruise returning as Cole Trickle and director Jonathan Levine in talks to come on board, NASCAR could soon be heading back to the big screen. The timing is hardly a surprise. With the rise in popularity of Formula 1, motorsport movies are in demand. Last year, F1: The Movie grossed $634 million according to [IMDB](https://www.boxofficemojo.com/release/rl2507374593/?ref=the-race.com), making it the highest-grossing auto racing film in history. Cruise has also shown with *Top Gun: Maverick* that legacy sequels can work when they bring something fresh rather than simply trading on nostalgia. So if *Days of Thunder 2* really is next on the grid, what should it look like? The Race's writers give their verdict on what they want from the long-awaited sequel. **Edd Straw** The timing for a Days of Thunder sequel couldn’t be better. Riding on the coattails of F1: The Movie and with the star power of Tom Cruise, it has the potential to surpass the 1990 original and be a genuine cinematic event. However, it comes with risk. NASCAR will rightly regard it as the opportunity to boost its flagging popularity, which brings the risk of 'blandification'. Product placement has long been a reality when it comes to Hollywood movies, but if the mindset is simply to make this a glossy advert for NASCAR then it will fall short as a movie. It must also not make the mistake of F1: The Movie. You can't question the popularity or success of it, but my biggest problem was that it simply wasn't as good a film as it should have been - and part of that was down to the writing. One of the strengths of Days of Thunder is its sense of fun, so any sequel must tap into that rather than getting weighed down by a sense of earnestness that it can't back up, which was a problem I had with F1: The Movie. It must be a movie first, and a promo for NASCAR a very distant second. Strike that balance and it could not only be a great watch, but also move the dial for NASCAR as a whole. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/dd/af/ddafbd99-2ccd-468c-b622-4b3cccf80b49/content/images/2026/08/XPB_1219870_HiRes.jpg) **Fictional APXGP pit garages used for filming F1: The Movie at Silverstone in 2023* **Jack Benyon** If Days of Thunder 2 doesn't have throwback liveries, I'm going to be so, so mad. One of my favourite things NASCAR has done in recent years is have retro throwback livery weekends, which have produced some spectacular pieces of beautiful, perfect nostalgia. What is Days of Thunder 2 if not beautiful, perfect nostalgia?! There's the perfect chance to build this into the plot also. Picture it. Tom Cruise is going into the final race of the season, he has to beat Russ Wheeler's son (presumably he's called something like Tucker), to win the Cup Series championship. The cars roll off pitlane and for the first time in the movie, Cole Trickle's number 42 has a throwback Mello Yello or City livery, and Wheeler's is in the famous Hardee's. They'll go head to head for the title with a perfect callback to the first movie. All of the other cars on the grid also use paint schemes from the original, too. How would that not be absolute perfection? **Darren Cox** One of the reasons great racing films are great is that they perfectly fit the era they are released in. The original Days of Thunder followed on from Top Gun and was part of the MTV era of America conspicuously celebrating success and celebrating that success with confidence and without irony. The recent F1 movie added Brad Pitt to the rocket ship of the ‘content first’ Formula 1 era. That contrasted with its somewhat related '60s cool', arty and edgy predecessor, Grand Prix. They were great because they were both of their time and not interchangeable. I was involved in the movie Gran Turismo and it absolutely was not the film the 52-year-old me would have made. But the teenage version of me that watches it thinks it’s ‘their’ racing movie. A hero who games and succeeds even though his parents don’t support or understand him, all wrapped in an airy, tech-heavy, easy to follow story that belongs exactly in the post-lockdown era. At just the moment that NASCAR has again realised their actual audience is the ‘good ol’ boys’ and not a facsimile of an F1 fan, Days of Thunder becomes the perfect device for the series and the film producers to retell a story of American industry built on V8s and blue collar sweat against one built on data centres and private equity. The film might just have found its own geopolitical moment. I for one am praying to the eight-pound, six-ounce, newborn infant Jesus that if Cole Trickle is making a comeback, so should the real icon of Hollywood NASCAR, Ricky Bobby. ![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/dd/af/ddafbd99-2ccd-468c-b622-4b3cccf80b49/content/images/2026/08/XPB_287484_HiRes-1.jpg) **Tom Cruise at Daytona in 2009* **Valentin Khorounzhiy** Ultimately this movie will only exist because Top Gun: Maverick showed that you can make serious bank with a modern sequel to a beloved-but-flawed slice of Tony Scott-directed Tom Cruise-led late-80s cheese. But I hope Days of Thunder 2 doesn't follow the Maverick blueprint too much - because... let's be honest, F1: The Movie already basically did that. Ultimately, I'm OK with Cruise's character Cole Trickle still driving (Cruise is 64, but it's easier to swallow in a NASCAR context), and I'm OK with what will inevitably be copious amounts of nostalgiabait - but I want to see a central story concept, and screenplay around it, that stands on its own and doesn't drown in sports movie cliches. Reporting has named Jonathan Levine as director and Will Staples as scriptwriter. Levine is a deeply interesting choice, primarily a comedy director up to now without a track record of smash hits, though the one movie of his I have seen - 2019 Seth Rogen/Charlize Theron politics romcom Long Shot - I am very fond. Of Staples' work, I am only really familiar with the script he wrote for Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 3 over 15 years ago. It wasn't exactly Shakespeare - but, again, it was 15 years ago, and I would be lying if I said I don't love it. I hope they both bring their A-game. I also hope, for my own sake more than anything, that the sequel acknowledges the horribly sexist way Nicole Kidman's character was introduced in the first movie with a "hey, that was messed up, wasn't it? Sorry about that". **Samarth Kanal** So many questions. I have so many questions after seeing the news about a Days of Thunder sequel: Does the original Days of Thunder deserve a sequel? Isn't Tom Cruise slightly too young to be playing Hershel McGriff? Will this movie drive up the value of my NASCAR jackets? It's easy to be cynical about this endless cycle of Hollywood reboots, and I will be - but the grass-touching, rose-sniffing side of me wants it to be fun, loud, and visceral. Two and a half hours of this would probably beat watching the 2026 Brickyard 400, too, so there's that.