Are you ready for the “Top Gun” wannabe of race-car movies? Based on the true story of Cardiff, Wales-raised Jann Mardenborough, winningly played by actor Archie Madekwe in the film, “Gran Turismo” is a fictionalized account of Jann’s rise from obscure player of the popular video-game “Gran Turismo” to the winner of the legendary 24-hour race at Le Mans, France.. OK, the real-life Jann did not win the Le Mans race. But he did win a race, which is pretty wild when you think about it: Table jockey drives a real race car under the checkered flag.

This guy went from being an underemployed loser, college-dropout and nerd virtually locked in his room in his parents’ house obsessively playing a video-game designed by an employee of car manufacturer Nissan (Takehiro Hira) to being a winning race car driver on the Nissan/NISMO team. When Nissan dealer and promoter Danny Moore (a solid Orlando Bloom) makes a pitch to skeptical Nissan executives in Tokyo to create a program to turn “Gran Turismo” players into real race car drivers, he surprisingly gets them to establish and fund a GT Academy for top “Gran Turismo” players with him in charge. Who is going to teach the players how to drive real race cars? In the tradition of all such tales, of course, that person will be a jaded, broken-down, washed-up former racer-turned-mechanic in this case played by David Harbour of TV’s “Stranger Things.” I cannot tell you how much Harbour, who we know is good with young people, brings to “Gran Turismo.”

Jann has had problems with his father Steve Mardenborough (a terrific Djimon Hounsou), a former professional football player, who has been training Jann’s younger brother Coby (Daniel Puig) and wants Jann to join in with them. For nerd Jann, who listens to Kenny G and Enya to relax, chief engineer Jack Salter (Harbour) is a second father, who in contrast to his dad Steve believes in him.

Jann’s transformation will involve multiple steps, contests and rivalries and many locations around the world. “Gran Turismo, which boasts a trope-heavy screenplay co-written by Jason Hall (“American Sniper”), was directed by Neill Blomkamp (“District 9,” “Elysium”), someone we associate with science-fiction, and in many ways “Gran Turismo” is science-fiction. It is the story of young men and women propelled around race tracks at over 200 mph by state-of-the art, super-powered racing machines. Jann and his fellow racers don fire-repellent suits, gloves and helmets resembling garb we associate with astronauts and jet pilots. They are this films earth-bound space travelers, except in a real-life-based scene in which Jann’s race car goes airborne for real.

Cinematographer Jacques Jouffret (“Tom Clancy’s Jack Ryan”) must be commended for his contribution to the film’s excitement level. The racing shots, many of them from helicopters following and racing above the supercars, make this film’s “need-for-speed” a crucial element. I saw “Gran Turismo” on an IMAX screen, and I recommend it. Every “Top Gun” type film must have its “Ice.” In this case, he is rich, rival driver Nicholas Capa (Josha Stradowski), Also in the supporting cast, Geri Horner aka Ginger Spice delivers a heartfelt turn as Jann’s mother. Music by Lorne Balfe and Andrew Kawczynski is suitably, if also wearily head-pounding. Overworked sub-woofers will rattle your seats as well as your heads. Gentlemen (and women), start your engines.

(“Gran Turismo” contains scary action scenes and some profanity)

Rated PG-13. At the AMC Boston Common, AMC South Bay and suburban theaters.  Grade: B+