Arriving four years Tony Scott made Tom Cruise into a movie star, one could assume this film was sold as “‘Top Gun’ with cars,” and style over substance is once again the order of the day here, but that’s hardly a bad thing. A racing movie doesn’t always need to reinvent the wheel(s) in order to be entertaining, and “Days of Thunder” certainly is that. 

Cruise is firing on all cylinders in the fast-moving flick, with an impressive ensemble rounded out by his future wife Nicole Kidman, Robert Duvall, Randy Quaid, Michael Rooker, a young John C. Reilly. Cruise plays a hot-shot (a description that could fit virtually every one of his ’80s roles) determined to dominate NASCAR and unconcerned with how he rubs other drivers the wrong way. 

Racing-savvy fans will enjoy cameos from a who’s who of the biggest names in racing at the time, both drivers and commentators. While “Days of Thunder” is very much a racing movie of its particular pop culture era, what an era it was.