In oval racing drifting is not a good way to drive. However I remember that a proper four wheel drift use to be the prefered method of going through a turn in formula one racing.
I'm not talking about those silly car sliding all over the place drifts but a tightly controled drift that lets you keep your F1 car in a higher gear so you can come out of a turn without even having to shift back up. But theses types of drifts are totally controlled in which you keep the car on the edge of losing traction but not breaking away so you don't lose speed because you quite often can get around a curve using a good drift without changing gears.
This might have changed as of late because I admit I am a few years out of date not being up on racing for at least 10 years.