The ADHOC MAC protocol is a classical MAC protocol for supporting reliable broadcast services in vehicular ad hoc networks (VANETs). This paper develops an analytical model for analyzing the access performance of the ADHOC MAC protocol. A Markov chain is first constructed to describe the number of vehicles which have acquired a timeslot successfully at the end of a frame when using the ADHOC MAC protocol. Based on the Markov model, an analytical model is then derived to describe the relationship between the frame length and the channel utilization. Based on the derived analytical model, an optimal frame length that maximizes the channel utilization is further obtained. Simulation experiments are conducted to verify the effectiveness of the analytical model.