In the NASCAR comedy "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby," opening Aug. 4, Will Ferrell plays the title role — a loud, fast-driving/slow-thinking race-car champ who undergoes a crisis of faith in his high-mph skills. The raucous comedy co-stars John C. Reilly as Ricky Bobby's equally clueless pal Cal; Leslie Bibb as his hot-trash wife, Carley; Sacha Baron Cohen (aka Ali G) as his gay-and-French racing rival; and Amy Adams as his assistant.

The fearlessly goofy comic was in Atlanta recently to push the film, so we banked some turns with him on a variety of topics and learned a few surprising things, like:

CURTIS COMPTON / Staff (ENLARGE)
"I've always kind of hidden off to the side and watched, and picked and chosen my moments, in terms of being funny," says Will Ferrell, in town to promote his new film. "Even as a kid I was considered funny, but I was not a class clown. ... I never pushed it."
All film photos by SUZANNE HANOVER / Columbia Pictures (ENLARGE)
Amy Adams plays Susan, the mousy assistant to Ferrell's Ricky Bobby.
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"He's a great improviser, just a fertile mind," Ferrell says of friend John C. Reilly, who plays Ricky Bobby's friend Cal.
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Ferrell and writer-director Adam McKay, who have been friends since their "Saturday Night Live" stints, are shown on the set of "Talladega Nights."
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Ricky Bobby (Will Ferrell) and his hot wife, Carley (Leslie Bibb), play to the crowds in a scene from "Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby," opening Aug. 4.
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Will Ferrell isn't so funny

At least off camera, that is.

"People are always, continually let down by meeting me and talking to me," Ferrell admits with a half-apologetic laugh, chatting earlier this month in a Buckhead hotel.

Unlike some comics, he isn't driven by inner demons, didn't survive hungry years in stand-up. He's not always "on" like the kind of manic performer whose name might start with "Robin" and end with "Williams."

"I've always kind of hidden off to the side and watched, and picked and chosen my moments, in terms of being funny," he says in a voice closer to the light, earnest tones of Buddy in "Elf" than the drunk, shouting streaker of "Old School" — or, well, the rowdy character he plays in his new movie.

"Even as a kid I was considered funny," Ferrell says, "but I was not a class clown by any means. I never pushed it."

He did try stand-up for a year or so, putting together 20 minutes of material. Then he fell in with L.A.'s improv troupe, the Groundlings.

"I just loved ensemble more." Not for unselfish reasons: "If you failed, you all failed — as opposed to just you."

An accident waiting to happen

Ferrell and director/co-writing partner Adam McKay are not geniuses for thinking up the why-didn't-anybody-else-think-of-that? concept of a NASCAR comedy. Just lucky.

"We went the most backward way about coming up with the idea," he allows. The "Talladega" story line materialized only because they were having a hard time getting a green light for their last (and first) feature together, "Anchorman: The Legend of Ron Burgundy." The studio suits couldn't quite get the idea of that surreal-'70s movie.

"As Adam and I talked about that, we said, 'God, for our next thing, we should just think of something that everyone knows either a lot about or a little about — something like NASCAR."

Ding, ding, ding!

"We kind of stopped and went, 'Wait, that's a good idea.' "

NASCAR is his co-pilot

When approached about the movie, the NASCAR folks hopped into the passenger seat. "Both sides were really just frank with each other," Ferrell says. "We said, 'Look, you should probably watch "Anchorman." This is our sensibility. It's a sports comedy, and we're obviously going to have fun with your sport, but we're not interested in making fun of the fans.' "

And NASCAR said: Cool.

"It kind of shows the confidence they had in their sport and their footing in the culture. They were like, 'Yeah, let's have a little fun.'"

Ricky Bobby has no need for speed

When it comes to driving, Ferrell, Reilly, Cohen and McKay are great big babies.

They did none of their own driving in "Talladega Nights" (because of insurance issues). But they did go to the Richard Petty driving school to take a few laps so they could look like they knew what they were doing in the driver's seat.

First, a professional driver took each of them for a 170 mph spin around the track, then they waited, along with regular folks, to get behind the wheel themselves. Which is when they started to lose their nerve.

"We were in the middle of 100 other people who had all paid their money to drive eight or 15 laps," Ferrell says. "And we all had the same reaction, we were like, 'Should we just leave now?' We were being so vocal about how nervous we were, one of our instructors said, 'Could you guys keep it down? You're scaring the paying people.' We were setting off this chain reaction.

"But once you drove, actually being able to do it yourself, it was pretty fun."

John C. Reilly can do anything

Ferrell, a friend of Reilly — who's best known for dramatic work in movies including "The Hours" or "Boogie Nights" — wanted him to be in "Anchorman." "We were like, 'I'm telling you, John, you could do one of these big comedies, you're that funny.'"

Reilly took "Gangs of New York" instead. But he signed up for "Talladega."

"He's a great improviser, just a fertile mind — to the point that he was thinking of ideas for other characters, other scenes," Ferrell says. "We were impressed." (Pause.) "Then we were kind of depressed. It was like, 'God, he's as good at comedy as he is at regular acting.'"

Gettin' paid just to have fun

McKay has been one of Ferrell's best friends since their "Saturday Night Live" days. They make more money and have more fun than you.

"I've probably said this too many times in interviews, and it's gonna catch up to me, but it feels like we're just playing around every day," Ferrell says. "We kind of pinch ourselves that we've gotten to make these last two movies."

They also pretty much make it all up as they go along.

"Adam was a great improviser when he was at Second City in Chicago. So he'll just roll the camera and yell lines at you, like, 'Try [this]. ...' " Ferrell would help him brainstorm some lines, but all the actors wound up coming up with some of their own funny bits.

Amy Adams 'saved' the picture

"Yeah, she saved our butts," Ferrell says about a scene in a bar where Adams transforms from mousy assistant to a passionate booster who gives Ricky Bobby the courage to drive again. Oh, and she ends up crawling on top of the table, whipping her hair in his face, à la a Whitesnake video.

"She was amazing. She came up with all this stuff, like: 'Ricky Bobby's not a thinker, he's a driver!' We were like, 'Wow.' And she's incredibly beautiful on top of it."

And ending up atop the table? "Actually, that was her idea: 'Can I crawl up on the table?' And we were like, 'Please do.' "

Oscar, NASCAR. NASCAR, Oscar.

One of "Talladega's" stars is not like the others.

"What makes me laugh is that this movie has three Academy Award nominees in it," Ferrell says. He is not one of them. They're Adams ("Junebug"), Reilly ("Chicago") and Michael Clarke Duncan ("The Green Mile"), who plays the chief of Ricky Bobby's pit crew.

"I want to run an ad later, with, like, beautiful music," Ferrell says. You know the kind: a somber-voiced announcer introducing slo-mo shots of his Oscar-nominated co-stars ...

"And then cut to me."

Nudity is always an option

There is not an actual clause in Ferrell's contract ensuring that he run around naked ("Old School") or in his underwear:

"Sad to say, it's nowhere in the contract," Ferrell says, and sighs. "It's funny, no one believes me, but it's never a goal. It just seems to happen."

In "Talladega," he strips to his underwear after exiting his car following a crash. "When we were writing that scene, we were like, 'You know, it'd be funny if he thinks he's on fire and he's running around doing the exact opposite of what he's supposed to do.' But you've got to keep the helmet on, otherwise it wouldn't be as funny."

Then, in the movie, he strips to his underwear a second time.

Another sigh. "Yeah, I know," he says. "I'm riding the line here of celebration and criticism for 'my little moments.' "

What 'Frat Pack'?

There is no such thing, officially, as the so-called "Frat Pack," even if Ferrell, Ben Stiller, Jack Black, Vince Vaughn and Owen and Luke Wilson all show up in the same movies.

"It's a complete manifestation of the media," Ferrell says. "The truth of it is that you have a group of actors who really do think each other are funny. And say so."

And, come to think of it, Stiller is producing Ferrell's next movie, "Blades of Glory." And Ferrell recently e-mailed Black after he heard a song from Black's band Tenacious D on the car radio while he was in Sweden. And he did invite Luke Wilson to his birthday earlier this month ...

"But," Ferrell says, "there's not weekly meetings or anything."

Don't believe everything you read

Some (alleged) upcoming Ferrell projects:

"Old School 2": "It's listed [on the Internet Movie Database], but it's either happening and no one called me, or it's not happening, because I haven't heard anything."

"Land of the Lost" (a remake of the cheesy 1970s kids' show): It may happen. But Ferrell says it's tricky figuring out the tone — would it be a big-budget flick with realistic dinosaurs, or a spoof with cheap effects, like the series itself.

"With 'Bewitched,' we kind of entered the TV-show-as-a-movie thing," he says. Pause. "And, you know, it wasn't so much fun."