What’s The Most Exciting Car Chase Ever? We Might Finally Have an Answer

By Elliot Nash - News

Updated: 29 April, 2026

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Readtime: 4 min

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There’s no shortage of iconic car chases in film to get your blood pumping in the theatre, but a new study has tried to settle the debate surrounding the most exciting car chase scenes with something a little more measurable.

According to research from Canstar, Mad Max: Fury Road delivers the most exciting car chase in cinema history, based on how much it raises viewers’ heart rates.

More than 150 participants were fitted with monitors and shown a series of well-known chase scenes, with researchers tracking both beats per minute and heart rate variability to calculate an overall “excitement score”.

What Is the Most Exciting Car Chase Ever?

Fury Road came out on top, pushing heart rates up by an average of 25 BPM, the biggest spike of any film tested.

The film opens with Max chained to the front of a war rig, barely giving you a second to settle before the first chase kicks off. From there, it’s a constant rotation of sandstorms, pole cats swinging between vehicles, and convoys colliding at full speed. There’s no single standout moment because the whole film is built like one extended chase, each sequence feeding straight into the next. Which makes you wonder which scene they showed the participants?

Either way, it’s the relentlessness of Fury Road that earns it the top spot. It doesn’t give your heart rate a chance to drop.

But sitting just behind the wasteland is a film that occupies a very different kind of space.

Why Ronin Still Feels Like the Benchmark

Landing in second place is Ronin (1998). I didn’t watch it properly until much later. Instead, my dad would cue up the chase scenes to test out his sound system and give me a taste of more grown-up movies, even if he occasionally forgot to hit pause before things escalated.

That was enough. The speed, the weight of the cars, the sense that everything was happening for real. It stuck.

That’s what makes its placement interesting. No excess, no safety net, just cars being driven hard through real streets with no margin for error.

And to be fair, Mad Max: Fury Road leans heavily on practical work as well. George Miller famously pushed for real stunts wherever possible, even when it would’ve been easier not to.

But Ronin feels different. It’s not heightened or stylised. It’s real.

Modern Spectacle vs Practical Driving

The rest of the list leans more modern. The Dark Knight (2008) and The Bourne Supremacy (2004) both feature, while older entries like Bullitt (1968) still hold their ground. Even the OG LA Confidential makes the cut.

Then there’s the #25 spot: Terminator 2: Judgment Day (2001). Between the LA canal chase, the hospital escape, and the helicopter pursuit into the truck sequence, it feels low. It was also another film that Dad would play for me.

Maybe familiarity plays a part. Maybe it’s just hard to capture something that’s been rewatched that many times.

That’s the trade-off with trying to quantify something like this. The data shows which scenes hit hardest in the moment. It doesn’t necessarily explain why some of them stick around.

And judging by how close Ronin gets to the top, that part still matters.

Top 25 Most Exciting Car Chases in Movies (Ranked by Science)

Quick Hollywood Car Chase Facts:

• Mad Max: Fury Road recorded the biggest spike, lifting heart rates by 25 BPM on average
• Ronin is the highest-ranked pre-2000 film in the top 10
• F1 (2025) is the newest entry, landing at #9
• The Fast & Furious franchise has the most entries in the top 25 (four total)
• The Mad Max franchise ranks highest overall, with an average score of 70
• Terminator 2: Judgment Day ranks lowest on the list, despite having multiple iconic chase sequences

Here’s the full top 25, ranked by overall “excitement score”:

1. Mad Max: Fury Road — 94
2. Ronin — 85
3. Baby Driver — 81
4. Mission: Impossible – Fallout — 81
5. Quantum of Solace — 76
6. The Dark Knight — 74
7. Furious 7 — 66
8. Furiosa: A Mad Max Saga — 63
9. F1 — 57
10. The Bourne Supremacy — 55
11. The French Connection — 53
12. Fast & Furious 6 — 52
13. Mad Max 2: The Road Warrior — 52
14. Mission: Impossible – Rogue Nation — 51
15. Spectre — 51
16. Fast Five — 48
17. The Fast and the Furious — 47
18. Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One — 46
19. Bullitt — 46
20. The Matrix Reloaded — 43
21. Death Proof — 41
22. The Bourne Identity — 38
23. The Transporter — 34
24. Gone in 60 Seconds — 32
25. Terminator 2: Judgment Day — 32