NASCAR, Warner Brothers and IMAX could spend a lot of money on a marketing campaign for the new movie “NASCAR: The IMAX Experience.”

Or, they could simply repeat what former NBA standout James Worthy said after seeing a sneak preview of the film last week.

“That,” Worthy said as the credits rolled, “makes you want to get a Winnebago.”

It’s a shame, though, that people who see the movie when it opens this weekend in The Charlotte Observer OMNIMAX theater at Discovery Place in Charlotte, N.C., won’t get to see the movie with the same full 3-D effect that Worthy and the rest of those who saw the preview in Las Vegas did.

The theater does not have the 3-D format that would allow viewers wearing special glasses to feel like they were being showered with water and sparks from a welder’s torch at various junctures during the movie.

Still, the film, directed by Simon Wencer, is an all-access pass to places that even the most avid NASCAR fan may never otherwise get the chance to go.

“The IMAX format is totally immersive,” Wencer says. “It’s the most encompassing medium. When you’re watching this movie it sounds like you’re at the racetrack and it feels like you’re in the race car.”

Even without the 3-D effect, there are several scenes in the movie that can best be described as “cool.”

One is the opening sequence, which hearkens back to the sport’s bootlegger roots by using modern NASCAR characters — as well as stunt drivers filling in for them during the actual action — in vintage cars.

One of those cars then begins an excellently executed sequence that seamlessly takes the viewer from those roots through history toward today’s modern version of the sport.

Actor Kiefer Sutherland narrates the film, which includes a lot of gee-whizery based on the nature of the IMAX 3-D format. There are only three IMAX 3-D cameras in the world, and all were used in the filming of this movie at tracks in Charlotte, Bristol (Tenn.), Martinsville (Va.), Daytona (Fla.), Talladega (Ala.), Richmond (Va.), Rockingham (N.C.) and California.

For information on when the movie may be playing in your area, visit www.imax.com/racing/flash.html.