(Image credit: Alamy)

Tom Cruise has a need for speed again — wait, that’s the wrong movie. Technically, Cruise’s Pete “Maverick” Mitchell will return to the cockpit in “Top Gun 3.” But first, he has a date with the racetrack in “ Days of Thunder 2 .” Cruise will reprise his role as Cole Trickle, the talented hotshot driver in 1990’s “Days of Thunder.”

Cruise is a sequel machine, having played Ethan Hunt eight times in the “ Mission: Impossible ” franchise and Maverick twice in the “Top Gun” series. His desire to make another sequel based on a character from decades past makes sense, yet Cole Trickle is not the character I would pick. Instead, I want Cruise to return to the pool hall, blast “Werewolves of London,” and star in a sequel to “ The Color of Money, ” which celebrates its 40th anniversary this month.

The case (for and) against ‘Days of Thunder 2’

In my Tom Cruise pantheon, “Days of Thunder” is not in my top 10. I’m not even sure it cracks my top 15.…