Someone explain to me the fascination in the US with NASCAR??

I think it has something to do with Ringo Starr, but I can't be sure of the connection

 

People like boring stuff, hence football's popularity.

(come on, it's just people running back and forth on a field, that is present in a lot of other sports and isn't even a major objective. What's the big deal?)

 

Drewdog doesn't know you're supposed to wait and watch for the crashes...

 

I agree why is Nascar so big? That sport is so boring its ridicuolus, ya the crashes are exciting but you have to wait for the cars to go around the track a bunch of times before it happens

 

Four words....too many hillbillies around.

 

If you don't like it, there's not much I can tell you to explain it. But I can tell you what I like about it.

The popularity comes from the fact that these guys are racing half a million dollar 800hp cars at 200 mph and that if the driver makes one little mistake, he can go spinning out of control - into a wall, or into another car - and then the cars can pile up, then you just see smoke and wrecked cars all over the place. Then there are the driver rivalries and the race for the championships and many other factors that make it the second most watched sport in america - live and televised.

And for those of you who don't think that the drivers are athletes, you're wrong. They have a very physically demanding job and have to train for it too. Just look into the conditions that they have to sit through for anywhere from 3 to 5 hours. and some drivers actually race in more than one race in any given weekend.

 

NASCAR is a sport??????

 

And if he doesn't, then it's nothing but cars going round and round.

 

This could be reduced to one word - hillbillies.

I can't stand NASCAR, I consider it a complete waste of ESPN airtime and I can't imagine being entertained watching guys drive cars in a circle. Bizarre fascination. I guess you have to be into diesel mechanics or something.

 

Paging Behad, Paging Mr. Behad, your presence is needed in the following thread:



Oh and NASCAR sucks. I live in a place where many people love it and every vehicle, it seems, when I pass by it has a great big "3" sticker or "24" sticker. I used to watch the Daytona 500, but that was about it. Just cannot get into it.

 

You'd be surprised - a lot of drivers aren't "hillbillies" and a lot of them have quite a good education too.

Johnny Benson - Grand Rapids, Mich.
Greg Biffle - Vancouver, Wash.
Dave Blaney - Pennsylvania
Kurt Busch - Las Vegas, NV.

Larry Foyt - HOUSTON, TX.
Bobby & Terry Labonte - Corpus Christi, TX.

Robby Gordon - Cali.
Kevin Harvick - Bakersfield, Cali.
Jimmy Johnson - Cali.
Jeff Gordon - Born in Cali, raised in Ind.
Ryan Newman - has a ME degree from Purdue - South Bend Ind.
Tony Stewart - Ind.

Steve Park - NY state.

 

It's popularity is based solely on the fact of its inherent morbidity.

Someone could die in any given second.

Sure other sports have a similar undertone (especially football), but they are more appreciated for the athletic prowess of the players and appreciated for the fact that most viewers could never dream of hitting a homerun, dunking a basketball, or throwing a 60-yard touchdown pass. Viewers are in awe of these feats.

 

Nothing against those who like it, but I find racing to be pretty boring and stupid. But that's just me. If it were up to me, I would just do like 5 laps or 10, but not the insane amounts they go through. Either that, or maybe go on one LONG road and see who wins.

I also never understood how we could use all that oil, gas, etc. just to go around in circles. I don't know.

 

I don't care if they all have PhD's from Harvard! It is freaking boring! I don't find any sport to it since many of the driver's races are ruined by other drivers mistakes and the differences in vehicles means the races are fought on unequal terms. It just is boring to me.

 

This AGAIN?!

Didn't we talk about this just a month ago Meg? Why can't people just not talk about something they don't like?

By the way, I am a huge NASCAR fan. Part of the fun is that there are 43 cars, which makes your favorite driver winning even more exciting.

 

And for those of you who don't think that the drivers are athletes, you're wrong. They have a very physically demanding job and have to train for it too. Just look into the conditions that they have to sit through for anywhere from 3 to 5 hours. and some drivers actually race in more than one race in any given weekend.


So anyone who has a physically demanding job that requires them to be fit is an athlete? Eh... whatever. You can call it a "motor sport" if you want, but it's not a sport. Next you'll tell me the WWF is a sport because it's physically demanding and requires training.


NASCAR and wrestling... I don't get it.

 

Eh, can you please leave wrestling out of this? NASCAR is an actually competition, not just entertainment.

 

It's true, NASCAR is the "second most watched sport in America." But they only have 1 race a week (Winston Cup at least) in which all of their players/teams participate. If you took all 29 teams in the NBA and had them playing eachother in one game once a week, did the same with baseball/hockey/football...NASCAR would be the 5th most watched sport in America. That stat's just a bragging right and a half-assed justification (in this case). If you divided NASCAR's ratings by 29 and then again by, say 70 (about how many games are played weekly in the NBA), it wouldn't compare. If you took all the TV ratings from all basketball games in one week and added them all up, there would be another lack of comparison. Same with football and on down the line. I'm not insulting y'alls sport, but please don't cite this "fact" in argument anymore.

Oh, and on the "look at the conditions they have to endure for up to 3 hours" note, there's some magician in England right now that's going to be suspended in a tiny sealed box over the Thames or something with no food for over a month. Is he an athlete just because he can endure the uncomfortable?