NASCAR Media Group and New Video distributors have released The Daytona 500: 50 Years of The Great American Race, a two-disc look at the Super Bowl of stock car racing. Featuring a novel interactive way to experience the 2008 race, as well as a particularly interesting documentary on the history of the 500, as well as some fascinating interviews with NASCAR racing legends, The Daytona 500: 50 Years of The Great American Race should be a cinch for die-hard NASCAR fans, while even the mildly curious might enjoy the documentary.

In the name of full disclosure, let me just start off by stating that I'm in no way a NASCAR fanatic. I may catch the famed Daytona 500 each year on TV, but other than that, the only drivers' names I know are from when I was a boy, like A.J. Foyt, Mario Andretti, Bobby Allison, and the like, or new media darlings like Jeff Gordon. Certainly I've been aware of the absolute explosion of NASCAR in the last years, but I don't even qualify as a dabbler in the sport.

That being said, I was fascinated by The Daytona 500: 50 Years of The Great American Race, certainly more for the second disc's offerings of a documentary on the most famous names in stock car racing history, and their interviews, rather than for the footage from 2008's Daytona 500 race presented on disc one. Don't get me wrong; NASCAR's My Race interactive feature must be heaven for dyed-in-the-wool racing fans, but there's something about watching a sporting event after it's happened that's definitely anti-climatic for me.

The My Race interactive feature is pretty cool, though. With the use of your DVD remote, you can select up to six different views of the race, including five drivers' views from inside their cars, as well as the regular TV network broadcast feed (for the overview shots of the race). Not all of the race is covered here, obviously (it's a long race), but selected laps are included, totaling up to about 45 minutes worth of racing. However, when you factor in the various views you can choose, times that by six. As well, there's an audio feature that allows you switch around for the various drivers' audio feeds with their pits, as well as the broadcast audio feed, which multiplies your optional viewing time again.

Watching this footage (I did it just once, but switched around a lot to get all the views and audio feeds) was pretty exciting, I have to say, just from a standpoint of seeing what a grueling endeavor such a race is - both physically and mentally. When I was a kid, I don't remember them doing too much footage from inside the cars; it always seemed to be just the standard high-angle shots from the stands and camera posts. But watching these in-car feeds, you really get a sense of how much these cars are jostling and bumping around each other, and how incredibly dangerous it is to be traveling at those speeds when just the slightest miscalculation on the driver's part could prove to be disastrous.

As for the microphone feeds to the drivers, I guess I'm old-fashioned; I preferred the days when drivers just had that blackboard and chalk from the pits for communication. It's not "cheating" to have that radio communication today, but it felt more like just "car and driver" in the days when the driver had to gauge and judge for himself what was going on all around him, rather than having it fed to him continuously by radio (note to rabid NASCAR fans: cut me some slack on this one in the emails, okay? What do I know, right?). Still, it was quite interesting to hear the various feeds, and to see the strategies involved between driver and crew, particularly when we're talking about decisions having to be made in split seconds. Reviewing disc one of the actual February 17th 2008 Daytona 500 race footage wasn't as much fun as watching the race live (I did manage to catch it this year), and I won't be going through all the various alternate footage and audio feeds anytime soon, but I would imagine dedicated NASCAR fans will, and they'll appreciate the My Race interactive feature.

Disc two of The Daytona 500: 50 Years of The Great American Race, however, really grabbed my attention. Two documentary features commissioned by NASCAR in 2007 to celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of The Daytona 500 - The Legacy and Daytona 500: The Champions - were fascinating looks at the history of the race, and the legends who not only made The Daytona-International Speedway a recognizable world landmark, but who made NASCAR what it is today.

The Legacy features legends Buddy Baker, Darrell Waltrip, Michael Waltrip, Bobby Allison, Pete Hamilton, Mario Andretti, Marvin Panch, Junior Johnson, and David Pearson, seated around a table and just jawing about their Daytona wins. Plenty of arresting archival footage of the actual races is interspersed with their comments, making for a fascinating 55-minute discussion. What really came through for me while watching these giants of the racing field (winning the Daytona 500 is one of the most exclusive clubs on the planet) was their down-to-earth humility and "regular guy" personas. Listening to many of the multi-millionaire athletes and thugs who populate the other major pro sports today, you might suspect you were catching cast members from an episode of Cops, rather than "heroes" kids are supposed to look up to as role models. None of that is on display here, and that down-home, regular guy appeal (they're pretty funny, too) is probably why NASCAR beats all the other sports in attendance combined.

Daytona 500: The Champions is a fascinating documentary on the very beginnings of the famous race (when it was literally held on the sands of Daytona Beach), to Bill France, Sr.'s vision to build a huge banked stock car race track that would rival the fame of the Indy 500. Made up mostly of terrific archival footage of various races from the very first in 1959 to today's heats, Daytona 500: The Champions may gloss over some of that prehistory to get right to the famous races. But when it does, it immediately grabs you with the stories of rivalries and strategies that went along with those milestones in stock car history. Featuring comments from driving greats such as Cale Yarborough, Jeff Gordon, Dale Jarrett, Jimmie Johnson, Marvin Panch, Derrike Cope, Ward Burton, Mario Andrettie, Bobby Allison, Buddy Baker, Richard Petty, David Pearson, Fred Lorenzen, A. J. Foyt, Geoff Bodine, Ernie Irvan, Sterling Marlin, and Kevin Harvick, Daytona 500: The Champions gives even the most clueless NASCAR newcomer (present!) an excellent overview of the importance of this race, and its thrilling history.

The DVD:

The Video:
Disc one presents the 2008 500 in a full-screen, 1.33:1 aspect ratio. Quality of the in-car feeds vary according to available light levels and debris from the track. On disc two, the various archival film and video elements for the non-anamorphic, 1.78:1 letterboxed video transfer of The Daytona 500: 50 Years of The Great American Race vary greatly in quality. Some of the old 16mm stuff looks amazingly good, while video from the 70s and 80s look pretty rough. Obviously die-hard fans of NASCAR will take that into consideration, but quite a bit of the old stuff is going to break up on a big monitor.

The Audio:
The Dolby Digital English 2.0 stereo audio mix is okay, with little to no directionality, but seriously, wouldn't it have been great in a 5.1 remix, hearing those old stocks barreling down the straightaway? Too bad. There are no subtitles or close-captions.

The Extras:
You can play this disc on your computer, and grab a couple of NASCAR wallpapers for your desktop, but that's it for the extras here.

Final Thoughts:
Die-hard NASCAR fans will no doubt enjoy the interactive My Race feature on the first disc, where the viewer can enjoy the 2008 Daytona 500 from a variety of in-car camera and audio feeds. And newcomers and novices to NASCAR (like myself) can get a good sense of the history and legacy of The Great American Race from the two excellent bonus features The Legacy and The Champions. I recommend The Daytona 500: 50 Years of The Great American Race.