Are we being a bit naive here, or what?
Look; any movie that features fast cars and racing - especially stunts - is going to be faked, just like everything else that comes out of Hollywood. Most everybody claimed to loooove 'Gone in Sixty Seconds' last year, but they used computer graphics for some of the more fantastic stunts in that movie! So what?
It was still fun to watch.
I readily agree that they could have simply used an honest-to-God 9-second blown big-block Mopar to get the same effect they got with hydraulics and smoke machines, but these scenes are very expensive (everybody working on the set gets about $100. per hour, not including the stunt guys/gals and the actors) and they want it done once and done right, with no chance for mistakes or any real danger to anyone (they have insurance guys that dictate how some of the stunts have to be performed).
This is why the stars very seldom get to do any serious driving - insurance clauses and legal roadblocks stop that every time.
It entertainment to us, but it's really a business and time is money, even in Hollywood.
So, they faked a wheelie and a burn-out (mutually exclusive anyway) and a lot of other things; it was still entertaining.
I didn't expect a documentary about racing, just a Hollywood movie about racing.
The fakery is just an aspect that you assume.
Sort of like what the WWF is to Olympic wrestling. Fun and entertaining and not worth getting too excited about, as I see it. Hey; it's only a movie.
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