AMC’s Thunder Road Could Be NASCAR’s Next Big Story

LAS VEGAS, NV – MARCH 16: A general view of Las Vegas Motor Speedway as US Air Force Thunderbirds perform a flyover over the American flag during the singing of the National Anthem before the start of the Pennzoil 400 NASCAR Cup Series race on March 16, 2025, at Las Vegas Motor Speedway in Las Vegas, NV. (Photo by Jack Geissinger/LVMS/Icon Sportswire via Getty Images)

Icon Sportswire via Getty Images

If you’ve been a NASCAR fan for a while and remember when drivers still smelled faintly of leaded fuel and engine grease, you’ve probably heard of the 1958 film Thunder Road starring Robert Mitchum. Its tie to the sport’s early days is undeniable.

The plot centers on outlaw drivers running moonshine in highly modified Chevys and Fords through the twisting backroads of the South in the 1940s and ’50s. Put someone like Junior Johnson in the lead role, and it would read like a documentary. Those same moonshine runners, half criminal, half folk hero, took their souped-up cars and raw driving talent from the hills to the dirt ovals, and eventually to the paved tracks that gave birth to NASCAR. Johnson himself reportedly served as an unofficial technical advisor for the film, because, frankly, he’d lived it.

Now, a new Thunder Road is being fired up, this time as a scripted series for AMC. Unlike its 1958 predecessor, it won’t focus on just moonshine runners but will instead expand to stock car racing itself and the families who live in it.

This marks another NASCAR attempt at a scripted series, following the short-lived Netflix comedy The Crew starring Kevin James. But this time, it’s not laughs they’re after — it’s legacy. The project will be a long-form drama written and executive produced by John Fusco, whose credits include Young Guns, The Highwaymen, and Netflix’s Marco Polo. He’ll be joined by Cliff Roberts and Mark L. Smith — the latter known for The Revenant, Twisters, and American Primeval — along with NASCAR’s own Tim Clark and John Dahl as executive producers.

According to Deadline, Thunder Road “follows the multi-generational saga of the Whitlock family, whose legacy in stock car racing is as deep as the family’s ties to the southern hill country roots that shaped them. It features family dynamics, fierce rivalries, and the untold stories behind one of America’s most iconic sports.”

So, imagine Yellowstone with a pit crew — or Days of Thunder reimagined as a family drama where the rivalries don’t end when the engines cool, and everyone still smells faintly of race fuel and barbecue smoke. It’s Sons of Anarchy in NASCAR country, only this time the engines are legal, the grudges are generational, and the names might as well be Petty, Allison, Earnhardt, and Waltrip.

The project is being steered by Dan McDermott, AMC Networks’ President of Entertainment, and Ben Haigh, co-head of domestic programming, as part of AMC’s push into Americana-driven storytelling. Thunder Road is not part of the network’s upcoming Great American Stories franchise; that new anthology will debut separately with an adaptation of John Steinbeck’s The Grapes of Wrath — but the two share the same ambition: exploring uniquely American stories rooted in family, conflict, and legacy.

It’s also another sign that NASCAR’s media strategy is evolving. The sport has spent the past few years focusing on unscripted storytelling — from Netflix’s Race and two seasons of Full Speed, to Race for the Championship on USA Network and Peacock. Later this month, NASCAR will debut Rising, a YouTube docuseries spotlighting young drivers Jesse Love, Carson Hocevar, and Rajah Caruth.

If those projects put a human face on today’s garage, Thunder Road looks ready to dig into the mythology — the roots, rivalries, and family dynasties that have powered stock car racing for generations.

For a sport born on the backroads, this might be the most fitting return to its storytelling roots yet.