{"id":53844,"date":"2025-08-08T06:04:07","date_gmt":"2025-08-08T06:04:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/53844\/"},"modified":"2025-08-08T06:04:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-08T06:04:07","slug":"kyle-larson-says-talladega-nights-made-nascar-into-a-joke","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/53844\/","title":{"rendered":"Kyle Larson says &#8216;Talladega Nights&#8217; made NASCAR &#8216;into a joke&#8217;"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>NASCAR driver Kyle Larson is a fan of racing movies \u2014 but has mixed feelings about one comedy.<\/p>\n<p>Earlier this week, he revealed some of his favorite racing movies on Julian Edelman\u2019s podcast \u201cGames With Names,\u201d a list that included \u201cTalladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>Nevertheless, Larson believed the movie did some damage to the sport of racing.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.49926794;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"36768189\" width=\"885\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/kyle-larson-driver-5-hendrickcars-109133698.jpg\" alt=\"Kyle Larson at NASCAR Cup Series qualifying.\" class=\"wp-image-36768189\"  \/>NASCAR racer Kyle Larson. Getty Images<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI mean, I like the movie,\u201d Larson said of the popular Will Ferrell movie. \u201cI think it did not do anything good for our sport. I think it turned our sport into a joke, unfortunately. But that is one of the most popular racing movies \u2026 I feel like the rest of the world \u2014 that\u2019s what they think about our sport now.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cTalladega Nights\u201d is a movie about a fictional NASCAR driver, Ricky Bobby, who needs to build things back up to reach the top of the racing world again. While fans give the movie a 73 percent rating on the popular aggregator Rotten Tomatoes, Larson is not the only racer who thinks the movie is an inadequate representation of the sport.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Hendrick Motorsports teammate William Byron, who ranks first in the NASCAR Cup standings, <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/WilliamByron\/status\/1953120289379754315?\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener nofollow\">backed him up on X<\/a>, writing: \u201c100%. Should not be the first thing people think of.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>The two are far from the first two to speak on the movie.<\/p>\n<p>Racer Bubba Wallace also did not like the movie\u2019s depiction of the sport.<\/p>\n<p><img style=\"aspect-ratio:1.41436464;display:block\" loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" data-modal-image=\"36773470\" width=\"834\" height=\"590\" src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/08\/GettyImages-71394565.jpg\" alt=\"Will Ferrell speaks during a press junket promoting his new film &quot;Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby&quot; before practice for the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series USG Sheetrock 400 on July 7, 2006 at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Illinois. \" class=\"wp-image-36773470\"  \/>Will Ferrell speaks during a press junket promoting his film \u201cTalladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby\u201d before practice for the NASCAR Nextel Cup Series USG Sheetrock 400 on July 7, 2006 at Chicagoland Speedway in Joliet, Illinois.  Getty Images for NASCAR<\/p>\n<p>He revealed his feelings about the movie on the \u201cRubbin\u2019 is Racing\u201d podcast in February.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cBad. It\u2019s not like a good racing movie,\u201d Wallace said. \u201cIt\u2019s just a comedy. I remember watching it, I think I was high school, maybe like a freshman or something, and I seen that come out and I was like, \u2018They\u2019re making fun of our sport.\u2019 And I was like, \u2018That\u2019s not right.\u2019 But then I\u2019ve watched it multiple times now and I\u2019m like, \u2018Ah, OK, some scenes are funny\u2019 \u2026 but it\u2019s Will Ferrell. <\/p>\n<p>\u201cLove him as an actor for sure.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"NASCAR driver Kyle Larson is a fan of racing movies \u2014 but has mixed feelings about one comedy.&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":53845,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[446],"tags":[49,48,5864,634,82,1357],"class_list":["post-53844","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-nascar","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-comedy","tag-nascar","tag-sports","tag-will-ferrell"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53844","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=53844"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/53844\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/53845"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=53844"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=53844"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=53844"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}