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Driven is something I got caught with in a hotel room. I found it fascinating. Clearly the Formula One circuit saw the world passing them by as the NASCAR marketplace expanded and theirs did not, so they commissioned this film as a promotional piece. It has a lot of archetypes from sports movies, and a batch from action movies as well --- the green kid with talent and heart who needs to navigate the temptations and politics to realize his championship potential, the rugged veteran whose best days are past but he still has a trick or two up his sleeve along with a willingness to mentor, and the heartless power broker.
But it's the European in the films that are spellbinding, because while they're painted as stereotypically as they would be in a Stallone action movie --- the icy German, the goofy Italian --- the sport's biggest stars and fan base are Europeans, so they had to push the theme of the American's determination (the US being their primary target market) while casting these other guys as shallow, but still sympathetic (Europe being their secondary target market, and the director's home continent).
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