By MONTE DUTTON

There’s a frequent local TV commercial that encourages people to have “staycations,“, i.e., build a pool and stay home.

My “staycation” is a bit more reasonable. Until my financial situation improves – the latest estimate is August or September, or perpetually two months ahead, depending on level of optimism – each month gets worse as it goes along.

The best way for me to make it to the end of the month is to stay home and watch TV.

Wednesday was an extreme example. I discovered that TCM was showing a day-long series of auto-racing flicks, most of them dating back to the 1930s, and I “staycated” watching them.

“The Green Helmet,” with Bill Travers and Ed Begley. “The Crowd Roars,” with James Cagney. “Burn ‘Em Up, O’Connor,” with Dennis O’Keefe. “Speed,” with James Stewart. “Viva Las Vegas” with Elvis Presley and Ann-Margret. “The Racing Scene,” a documentary on a year in James Garner’s three-year experience running his own team, and one of my favorities, “Grand Prix,” with Garner, Yves Montand, Eva Marie Saint and Brian Bedford.

If I’ve seen “Grand Prix” once, I’ve seen it 50 times, and Disney’s “The Love Bug.” probably 25.

As a kid, there were many stock car racing movies I watched at The Broadway. “Speedway,” with Elvis. “Fireball 500” with Frankie Avalon and Annette Funicello, who never went to the beach. Neither did Funicello and Fabian in “Thunder Alley.” “Red Line 7000” with James Caan. “Thunder in Carolina” with Rory Calhoun. Marty Robbins was in “Hell on Wheels.” My favorite was “The Last American Hero” with Jeff Bridges and Valerie Perrine. Tom Cruise’s “Days of Thunder” wasn’t bad, even though it was pretty much the same story as “Top Gun” and “Cocktail.”

I yearn for a NASCAR-theme movie that attempts to be more than a farce, such as Kenny Rogers in “Six Pack,” Burt Reynolds in “Stroker Ace” and “Talladega Nights” with Will Ferrell.

Never has there been a worse racing movie than “Driven” with Sylvester Stallone. I was writing about a race in California when “Herbie: Fully Loaded” was being shot. “Cars” wasn’t bad for a cartoon.

I wish Wednesday’s series had included Steve McQueen’s “Le Mans” and Paul Newman’s “Winning.”

Fun fact: Elvis made three racing movies: “Viva Las Vegas,” his biggest success, NASCAR-themed “Speedway” and ‘”Spinout.”

Racing movies generally are similar to Elvis movies in that most of them stink.

They’re getting better, though.

My favorite racing movie in general was “Ford v. Ferrari,” which was also the most recent flick I watched in a theater. I’d like to go see “F1,” which is opening on Friday with Brad Pitt, but that will require my ship to finally come in. I saw “The Art of Racing in the Rain” with Kevin Costner.

As far as biographical movies are concerned, another good one was “Rush,” on James Hunt and Niki Lauda, followed by the TV movie, “3: The Dale Earnhardt Story” and “Greased Lightning“ with Richard Pryor as Wendell Scott. The best documentary was “Senna.”

Perhaps the worst movie ever made was “43: The Richard Petty Story.” It’s hard to find nowadays, but I saw it when it was released in 1972. It’s not even listed on Wikipedia.

Good racing movies are hard to find. I spent most of my time ogling famous cars and drivers in cameos. I made a plastic model of a Corvette that showed up in “Viva Las Vegas.”

“Le Mans” was the most realistic. “Grand Prix” was brilliantly shot by John Frankenheimer.

If I had a movie to make, I’d use Mike Hembree’s new book Petty vs. Pearson: The Rivalry That Shaped NASCAR as a basis. I’d love one based on Jim Hall and his revolutionary Chaparrals.

The biggest flaw in racing movies is the equivalent of what Tom T. Hall wrote about TV’s treatment of country music: They might pat your fanny / And say you’re a dandy / But they still don’t like pickin’ on network TV.

Once I get my football novel, The Graduate Transfer, published, maybe I’ll give screenwriting a shot. I had that in mind when I wrote my stock-car racing novels, Lightning in a Bottle and Life Gets Complicated. It might be worth a trip to the library, anyway.

Most of my books are available at Amazon.