Doesn't count.
In all seriousness, I love Bullitt, I love that car, it's an all round awesome movie and has the first or second best car chase ever. The French Connection also has the first or second best car chase ever.
But neither of these films could be included in this category because they are not about cars or driving cars. These kind of films are only ones where the character is defined by his affinity with cars. In some cases this is quite slight (Duel, White Lightning), while in others it is deep and profound (Two-Lane Black Top, Vanishing Point). I noticed actually when scanning through earlier that I used similar phrases across the reviews of those two and Drive, so there may even be a sub-sub-genre of "Nostalgic Melancholy".
Well, I know what I mean...
That's why I said when the marathon originally ended that Tarantino's Death Proof, despite being a mediocre film by relative standards, is the best car film since the 70s. Well, it was until this year! However what I meant was that there was nothing similar up against it. Had I included Bullitt et al, I would also have included Ronin and the Bourne movies and Death Proof would have been bumped down the list.
