NASCAR 3D documentary movie runs up front

Thursday, March 4, 2004 | 9:48 a.m.

If you think having Jimmy Spencer in your rear view mirror is frightening on its own accord, just imagine what it's like in 3D.

On second thought, don't imagine it. Go experience it for yourself.

From in-car cameras to realistic video games to motion-ride simulators to driving and ride-along outings on real racetracks, the auto racing industry has tried long and hard to provide its fans with the quintessential in-the-driver's-seat experience.

"NASCAR 3D: The IMAX Experience," which races into Brenden Theatres & IMAX at the Palms hotel-casino on March 12, may be the best attempt yet. In fact, if theatre owners could figure out how to replace that popcorn smell with the stench of burning rubber and station a few rowdy guys yelling "EARNHARDT! WOO-HOO!" up in the balcony, this new movie would take the immersive experience to the luxury suite level.

Actually, that's about the only place it doesn't go. The documentary is more beer and pork rinds than wine and cheese, tracing back to NASCAR's moonshine-running roots in the Carolina pines. Only dyed-in-Nomex fans will no doubt notice that it's current Nextel Cup stars Ryan Newman and Jimmie Johnson, and not Junior Johnson (no relation), evading the poh-lice.

The film goes beyond the roar of the engines and twisted sheet metal, at least as far as NASCAR would allow the producers and their cameras to go. It does a nice job introducing and explaining the behind-the-scenes elements of the sport that merge on Sunday afternoon to make stock car racing a national phenomenon.

Past champions such as Richard Petty, Darrell Waltrip and Dale Earnhardt are given their due as are many of their contemporaries, although Newman and Johnson and Jeff Green, whose sponsor, American Online, footed much of the bill for the production, are spotlighted more than Jeff Gordon, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and reigning champion Matt Kenseth.

There's even a shameless plug for AOL, when narrator Kiefer Sutherland points out that NASCAR haulers, the big rigs that transport the cars to and from the races, come better equipped than a Lexus.

"There's even a hookup to receive AOL Broadband," Sutherland says with all the subtlety of a 700-horsepower racing engine.

Otherwise, about the only flaw I found with the movie was the cheezy 3D effect that launches a tire into the audience. Although it's the most obvious use of the technology -- the guy seated next to me actually dove from his seat -- it also was remindful of "Driven," that dreadful Sylvester Stallone cliche of an auto racing movie, where about the only crash that wasn't reenacted was the big one on the New York Stock Exchange.

But the 3D stuff that wasn't manufactured on a laptop computer is impressive. The footage from ground level on the banking at Talladega, as well as that inside the cars, is as real as it gets. Or so one would assume. It's especially dramatic when viewed on a 5-story screen with 12,000 watts of digital surround sound assaulting the senses.

The best thing about "NASCAR 3D: The IMAX Experience" is that it tells the NASCAR story in roughly the time it takes to run one green flag segment at the Coca-Cola 600. It's a 48-minute joy ride that ends too soon.