Per conversation in the IRC channel:
Should the President of the United States support legislation that would move NASCAR from the confines of the United States and transplant it, as a whole, into Guatamala. Yea or nay?
yes.
And they should only drive ford festivas.
I was going to suggest that NASCAR be banned under international law as a crime against humanity, but moving it to Guatemala will suffice.
Well, now I’m curious.
Just why is this board such a hotbed of anti-NASCAR sentiment anyway? While we’re at it, why the call to ban what, in spectator numbers, is currently the nation’s most popular sport?
Actually, if we could get a ban on the pasting of “3” decals in the back windows of Chevy pickups, that
would be sufficient for me.
I’ll hazard a guess here and say because it sucks.
What exactly can you say about people who enjoy watching bright, shiny and loud things going in circles for 3 hours? And “sport”, hardly. Driving skill is one thing, but I hesitate to call it(any autoracing) a sport.
Of course you people realize that racinchicki is perfectly apoplectic with rage at the moment.
That said, we should gut all the NASCAR stadia and replace them with big freakin huge soccer stadia. AND, make it a law that all Americans have to support the league and attend the games. Period. I have spoken.
[sub]As long as we’re being over-the-top here[/sub]
Replacing NASCAR with soccer? Damn, Isn’t that kinda like asking if you’d rather have your genitalia severed or smashed?
I’m curious as to how this is justified. The going stat is that auto racing as a whole has become the world most watched sport (I believe by measuring the sum of annual attendance to events) surpassing soccer. In the US however I find it very very very hard to believe that a sport with essentially one race every Sunday can boast attendance numbers greater than what the NFL puts up each week with 15 games. Yes the NASCAR season is probably around 45 weeks long, but thats still a hell of alot less than the 248 NFL games each season. NFL certainly beats NASCAR in both average attendance and total attendance and MLB beats all of the above in total attendance. I don’t think auto racing can begin to hold a candle to even hockey in total TV viewership. The only stat that racing can claim to boast is average attendance per event. Now that stat is patently flawed because on any given Sunday there are 15 games of football as opposed to one NASCAR event. If you want to speak of auto racing as a whole every weekend then I’d counter with combining college football and NFL and there isn’t a sport in the states that can even come close to those numbers. Hell, I doubt that anything other than Indy can contain the number of fans who take in a Michigan game every Saturday without exception. I don’t claim to be an expert on racing, but how frequently do events top the 100,000 fan mark?
So, what criteria do you suppose measured that NASCAR (or even racing as a whole) in the most popular sport in the nation?
Very frequently. Some tracks hold about 150,000 spectators and sell out at over $100/ticket.
I think they alsofactor in TV audiences.
You spelled her name wrong.
My idea: build 10-mile ovals, take away all the speed/engine size retrictions, and let 'em run.
You’ll be the first one led to the guillotines, pal.
Oh, well, I gave my proof-reader/fact-checker the day off today.
Hm. I don’t mind watching it on TV, but if you think I’m fighting 350K+ people to see them race at Talledega in person, you’re out of your freaking mind. I’m serious, the big superspeedways top anything any sport can dish out. They’d probably impress the Soccer fans in Europe,even. For one thing, they aren’t as violent over here. 
Now, I can take or leave the sport. I don’t really care. I watch Indy, but that’s about it.
How about they schedule a pro “wrestling” match to coincide with the race? The wrestlers would be doing their thing at the start/finish line and the cars would have to race past and around them.
An event like this has the distant possibility of getting me to watch pro “wrestling”.
Well, that doesn’t really say much of anything at all, you know.
Pretty much what I’d say about people who enjoy watching large men in heavily padded costumes run into each other while attempting to move an oblong ball up and down a field, or those who enjoy watching some less well-padded men try, and usually fail, to strike a ball thrown at them from sixty feet away, or…
Obviously, just about any sport can appear ridiculous to those who aren’t involved in them, or who don’t understand them.
Sorry, not to pick on you personally, but your arguments mimic those of many others, and I have to question their logic. In auto racing, there is competition between teams (drivers plus pit crews), athleticism, a measure of strategy, and uncertainty as to the eventual winner. Sounds like a sport to me.
I personally find that NASCAR provides the most interesting contests of the major racing events, partly because of the enforced parity between teams, and partly because of the engaging personalities of the drivers, especially when compared to the micro-sphinctered formula one types. I understand if someone considers it “just going around in circles for three hours”, but that’s just general ignorance of what’s required to be competetive. To hijack a quote about another sport, “It’s supposed to be hard. If it was easy everyone would do it.”
To go back to my questioning of the OP, however, my suspicion is that the objections to NASCAR one finds herre have a certain elitist tone to them. If someone doesn’t care for a particular sport, that’s one thing; but the question was, “why the call for a ban on NASCAR in particular?” One can argue that sports in general are a pointless waste of time; if so, why does this one piss certain people off so? Perhaps NASCAR arouses such ire because of the echo of Roman chariot racing around the events. Who knows?
Re: the comments about most popular sport, I believe the claim (by NASCAR itself) is that it has the largest audience (in person and on television) of any single series of sporting events in North Amercia.
Cheers,
Look, I don’t really care, but I do wish they’d put NASCAR back on TNT where it belongs.
Of course I don’t have the facts, but I’d challenge this claim. I am willing to compare attendance totals if there indeed is a weekly average of +150,000 of spectators at NASCAR events. The claim that once TV ratings are factored in NASCAR still sits in the company of the NFL seems ludicrous. The institution that is MNF alone dwarfs virtually every TV program each year, including NASCAR which is rarely even in the rankings.
Clearly we’re both speculating, but if anyone has the gumption to do the research I’d be willing to wager that the NASCAR claims are suspect and neglect to mention certain fine points.
Rocket88 – thank you. You’ve pretty much said everything I was preparing to type myself.
As per the claims about NASCAR being America’s most popular sport: I know for a fact that for the past five years it has been the nation’s fastest-growing sport, as measured by television ratings, event attendance, income and related sales. I’ll go over to their website and find a cite for that if you’d like. I think the “most popular” thing may simply be a confusion about the “fastest growing” title.
Or, better yet, on the back of FORD PICKUPS! I’ve seen the “3” on Fords, Hondas, and one Hyundai!
Actually, I have no problem with NASCAR. I just don’t pay any attention to it.
I would love to be a race car driver. But watching race cars is only slightly more exciting than watching golf - and if they could arrange for more golf balls to hit more people golf might come out ahead.
As I always say: “Whatever floats your boat; just do it in Guatamala.”
What is the “3” supposed to represent?
Me, I’m up for anything, but I think that they should show Import Shoot-outs and televise races by Papadakis, Suwaratari and Tran. Then again, I also think that televising my sport, SCA heavy combat would be really cool…
Tristan: 3 is the car number for Dale Earnhardt, a popular driver who hits anything that moves and is personally not-particularly-cared-for [sub]understatement[/sub] by me.