I grew up with ray boom boom mancini.. he was a legend before Zevon
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vMfjyD8__Yo
Songs I can think of from this category are Michael Murphy "Renegade" and Bonnie Tyler "I Need A Hero":
How's everyone doing this morning?
Rush-Red Barchetta
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gvcgST_n6Mg
My uncle has a country place
No one knows about
He says it used to be a farm
Before the “Motor Law”
And on Sundays I elude the eyes
And hop the turbine freight
To far outside the wire
Where my white-haired uncle waits
Jump to the ground
As the turbo slows to cross the borderline
Run like the wind
As excitement shivers up and down my spine
Down in his barn
My uncle preserved for me an old machine
For 50 odd years
To keep it as new has been his dearest dream
I strip away the old debris
That hides a shining car
A brilliant red Barchetta
From a better vanished time
We fire up the willing engine
Responding with a roar
Tires spitting gravel
I commit my weekly crime
Wind in my hair
Shifting and drifting
Mechanical music
Adrenaline surge
Well-weathered leather
Hot metal and oil
The scented country air
Sunlight on chrome
The blur of the landscape
Every nerve aware
Suddenly ahead of me
Across the mountainside
A gleaming alloy air car
Shoots towards me, two lanes wide
I spin around with shrieking tires
To run the deadly race
Go screaming through the valley
As another joins the chase
Drive like the wind
Straining the limits of machine and man
Laughing out loud with fear and hope
I’ve got a desperate plan
At the one-lane bridge
I leave the giants stranded at the riverside
Race back to the farm
To dream with my uncle at the fireside
More along the lines of what I think you were requesting (and not mentioned yet, I think):
Behind Blue Eyes - The Who
Won’t Get Fooled Again - The Who
Wanted Dead Or Alive - Bon Jovi
Stealin’ - Uriah Heep (personal favorite)
Pilgrim - Uriah Heep (2nd half of song, about a conqueror who loses it all))
The Magician’s Birthday Party - Uriah Heep (epic fight vs. evil)
Hit Me With Your Best Shot - Pat Benatar (well, “combative”, anyway!)
Lunatic Fringe - Red Ryder
White Hot - Red Ryder (About a gun runner - not an exact fit here, but a GREAT tune!)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_wyWfklvNHc
Rebels. Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
The Ballad of Hurricane Carter.