Why is NASCAR so damn popular? I’ve always been a fan of open-wheel racing (on road courses at least) and cant understand what the interest is in watching a bunch of boxey production cars plastered with Viagra ads racing endlessly in clockwise circles.
Car racing is inherently boring, but I find Formula 1 pretty cool. I’ll admit, F1 has some competition problems, but the cars are way faster and the road courses are more interesting.
Also, where are sports-related questions supposed to go? not cafe society, right?
NASCAR is popular because the drivers are colorful and charismatic, the racing is tight and unpredictable, and since it is an individual sport you can root for one guy instead of a team so there’s more loyalty among fans. Events also take the entire weekend so it has a carnival atmosphere, with cookouts, tailgating, parties and whatnot.
Besides, it’s not that boring. For a guy like me who really likes getting into the nuts-and-bolts of stuff it’s endlessly fascinating.
The only way to truly answer your question, is to go to a race, just one race. I recommend Charlotte or Daytona or Bristol as perfect first race experiences. You go to one race, you’ll know.
I went several years ago to the Coca Cola 600 and had the time of my life. Between the night before where they closed downtown Charlotte and turned it into a massive street party with big-name bands scattered around, all the way to the pre-race show where a Black Hawk Helicopter swept into the stands firing blanks into the crowd and taking chase after jeeps fleeing down pit road…
I find it a strange sport. The cars are not “production” they just have a shell whose profile matches a production car. The headlamps are decals. The racing part is fine, but the whole idea behind it makes me scratch my head. I’d rather see real stock car races.
Many drivers (Dale Earnhardt is the best example) are the closest thing we have nowadays to “folk heroes.” This is why Earnhardt was so intensely memorialized - he represented a voice (or some kind of representation, at any rate) of the redneck culture.
I don’t mean redneck in a rude way here - I think it’s the best term for what I mean. Rural Midwestern/Southern white blue-collar culture. Whatever.
I still think millions of dollars are available to the first man to properly package WRC racing in America. Real cars. Get some American teams in there. On the track. Doing stuff that qualifies as X-TREME, just to drive right.
Fun stuff.
Nascar promoters are excellent. They’re upbeat and optimistic and don’t let facts stand in their way. They’re relentless in their boosterism, saying “We’re now the second most popular sport”, even when that so called fact is demonstrably false or at best an apples to tractors comparison (ie they compare Nascar’s national tv ratings to baseball’s and conveniently ignore the fact that baseball puts on 15 big events every day in the summer on local tv, as opposed to their one event per weekend event on national tv). Repeat a lie often enough and people accept it as fact.
I’ve never been to a Nascar event, but I’ve been to the Indy 500 back when it was the biggest race in the nation, and while it was very interesting, going to it once was more than enough.
It sounds like about as much fun as standing in line for Purgatory. I went (read: was compelled) to go to a race once, and my experience was about the same as Bearflag70’s. F1 and WRC are much more interesting to watch, IMHO, but I guess tehey aren’t the kind of blue-collar frat party that you describe NASCAR as being.
As the biggest NASCAR fan in the SD community, I cannot answer your question. I was taken to my first stock car race at 7 months old, attended my first NASCAR Grand National (now Nextel Cup) race at Riverside in 1964 and have attended a dozen races since. It is in my blood, no other sport comes close to getting my attention. I watch every race and I collect NASCAR collectibles, I have over 4000 pieces in my collection. I had an opportunity 22 years ago to move to Charlotte to work on race cars, I kick my self all the time for not taking advantage of the chance. Just as the OP questions NASCAR, I have the same questions about other sports. Whats the big deal about hockey? A bunch of goons skating around fighting is all it means to me. You couldn’t pay me enough to go to a hockey game. And tennis. Who gives a rat’s ass. And soccer, easily the most boring sport every played. NASCAR racing is not for everyone and I have no problem with that.
Nitpick: counterclockwise. NASCAR tracks are occasionally (jokingly) called “one long left turn” by F1 fans and people who find racing of all kinds excruciatingly boring.
Me, I think the whole thing is almost entirely without merit as a “sport” due to the tightly-confined engineering specifications of each car. And the fact that it’s boring.
Hear, hear. Of all of the above, I would least hate being taken to a soccer game. I hope you won’t take my opinions above as a personal insult but a very direct presentation of my tastes.
I am a hockey fan, and it is not all guys fighting. That is what I thought it was before I actually went to a game and got hooked. I’m not really a NASCAR fan, but one of my best friends is. She and her husband really really really want me to go to Atlanta with them next month for a race, and if it doesn’t conflict with the hockey schedule I’m going to go.
In all honesty, I’m going for the party. Screw the race.
Well, you’re an F/1 fan, so I assume you understand the appeal of watching a race, and seeing pit strategy, fuel strategy, tire strategy and how they play out along with a driver’s ability to win a race.
The thing about NASCAR is that usually the races are closer and there are more opportunities for passing. THAT’S what makes racing exciting, not the speed of the cars or the topography of the course. As a matter of fact, the NASCAR races on road courses tend to be somewhat boring affairs.
If you think the ability just to turn the car to the right is what makes a driver talented, you don’t get racing. How many times do you see F/1 drivers need to zip between two cars at 180 mph, or take the air off a guy’s spoiler going into a corner, or make a “bump-n’run” move?
How many lead changes do you see in an F/1 race?
How many times per race do you see F/1 drivers pull cars out of full spins at 150 mph?
F/1 certainly has an appeal. They are the pinnacle of machine and man in sport. But that doesn’t mean that racing slower cars is less appealing.
Just because the NFL and NBA are out there, that doesn’t make college hoops and college football any less exciting.
There are two kinds of people on this Earth…those who like auto racing and those who don’t.
Me and Mr. K live in a house divided. I will never understand the attraction of watching other people go fast. I can see wanting to go fast yourself, but watching guys turning left for 500 miles is mind-numbing. The sound of racing alone will keep me away from it.
Mr. K could watch each. and every. lap. Like someone who’s never seen a car before. I need to take a nap when it comes on.
Tire strategy in F1? What would that be, parking the car because the intricacies of a banked turn evade a multibillion-dollar company?
I enjoy NASCAR. Why? Because the drama of the last 10 laps at Daytona is captivating. Because being in the stands at Bristol is an experience unlike any other.
A lot of American race fans like NASCAR over F1 because of the feeling that they understand and could even work on the technology. The engine design that powers a Chevy Monte Carlo is the same small-block that Chevrolet engineers introduced in the 1950s. Your average gearhead is intimately familiar with how it works, how to tune it and what it’s capable of. Compare that to F1, where you’d need multiple engineering degrees to be able to add oil to the engine.
