5 things for adrenaline junkies to do during NASCAR weekend

It’s all about the rumble, right?

“Gentlemen, start your engines!”

When that call comes, signifying the beginning of a NASCAR race, and dozens of cars roar to life in unison, it’s a thing of ground-shaking, goosebump-catalyzing glory.

It feels like a couple of tectonic plates getting into a shoving match after school, like a volcano has erupted, spewing pools of awesomeness instead of all that pesky, flesh-melting lava.

Basically, it’s like smelling salts for your adrenal glands.

For adrenaline junkies partaking in the NASCAR festivities, though, what else is there to do in Vegas to accelerate pulses?

Here are five options to get your motor running:

Big Shot and Xcream at The Strat

You might have to excavate your stomach from your windpipe upon braving these two attractions high atop The Strat.

Start with the Big Shot, where you’ll be launched 160 feet in the air at 45 mph in the blink of an eye — just kidding, your eyes will be frozen open in fear.

The white-knuckle attraction shoots riders up the tower’s mast to a height of 1,081 feet, then down again in a mad rush.

If you’ve still got any breath in your lungs, there’s the X-Scream roller coaster, which propels you over the edge of the Strat tower at 866 feet high, where you dangle weightlessly before being pulled back and propelled again.

Don’t be embarrassed if you’re getting heart palpitations just reading about these bad boys.

Escape It

Here, all sorts of hell awaits.

Traverse sewers, abattoirs — complete with slaughterhouse smells, naturally — and dank garages, 16 rooms in all in this hybrid escape room/haunted house/immersive fright attraction, culled from hit horror franchise “It,” best known for its iconic archvillain: Pennywise the dancing clown.

At 31,000 square feet, Escape It (273 S. Martin Luther King Blvd.) is almost as big as the worldwide box-office receipts for the films it’s based on, which have raked in over $1.1 billion combined.

“We think it’s the biggest escape room in the world,” says Jason Egan, founder of Egan Escape Productions, which created Escape It.

Some of the rooms cost over six figures to construct.

“The goal is to make it feel as real as humanly possible,” he explains.

Or, considering the subject matter, perhaps “inhumanly” is more apropos.

SlotZilla zip line

Experiencing the SlotZilla zip line is exciting on two entirely different levels.

First, there’s the attraction itself, where there are a couple of different ways to ride: seated upright on the Zip-Zilla zip line, which launches from a platform 77 feet in the air and spans two blocks.

Or you can fly superhero-style on the Zoomline from a platform more than 10 stories high, soaring over 1,750 feet to a landing platform at the Golden Gate.

FlyOver Vegas

You’re not a bird, but wouldn’t you like to soar like one?

Well, the FlyOver Vegas flight ride (3771 Las Vegas Blvd. South) gives you an eagle’s-eye view of some of the world’s most breathtaking landscapes.

The way it works: You buckle into a flight motion seat, which elevates, dips and turns, surrounded by a 52.5-foot-wide spherical screen that displays various nature films, exploring such stunning locales as Iceland, the Canadian Rockies and the wonders of the American West.

It’s a truly immersive attraction, right down to scents of nature and gusts of wind that enhance the ride, making the experience as beatific as it is exhilarating.

NASCAR Racing Experience

It’s like Ricky Bobby once said, “Absolutely, ma’am, I’d love to sign your baby.”

Just like that all-time racing great, you will be swarmed by throngs of fans demanding your autograph upon laying rubber all over Las Vegas Motor Speedway during the NASCAR Racing Experience.

OK, probably not — but at least you’ll feel like a star after burning up the track in a real NASCAR race car, with packages ranging from five minutes to 48 minutes of race time.

There’s a pit stop after every eight minutes to get the full-on racing experience.

And if taking the wheel isn’t your thing, you can do a three-lap ride-along with a driving instructor to satiate that need for speed.

Contact Jason Bracelin at jbracelin@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0476. Follow @jbracelin76 on Instagram.