There is a not so well-known movie (at least not very internationally well known) that I loved as a kid and STILL love called Michel Vaillant. It is a French movie about race drivers competing. However, its more than a simple generic 'the protagonist must beat his competitor sort of deal. It may as well be an action movie if its not already in that genre. It involves death, sabotage and is hard on the theme of reputation. It is based on the Michel Vaillant comic book series. More specifically the 60th issue: 'Pour David' (For David).

Its a bit hard to describe myself so I'll just paste the IMDb summary: Fearless racer Michel Vaillant attempts to win "24 Hours of Le Mans", the famous highly challenging and prestigious annual endurance race that lasts one whole day.
I know that summary doesn't explain much but its much darker and elaborate than you may think. If you're into action, drama and cars. I'd really recommend watching it.

The only problem is that its in French, and I can't find many versions online with English subtitles (yes I know watching stuff online for free is bad but just let me be here). These two links (each showing the two parts of the movie) are the best subtitled links I could find. But the English subtitles are lagged a little bit so it may be hard to understand some parts. For some reason, the parts where they speak English are still dubbed French, but there are subtitles anyway, even if they are lagged a little bit.

At least watch the opening scene to get you in the mood and see how you feel with watching the rest.

Part 1: http://www.streetfire.net/video/mic.....-p1_681161.htm
Part 2: http://www.streetfire.net/video/mic.....-p2_681172.htm