Why does everybody like nascar?

[Ricochet]

I mean the races go on forever, all they do is drive circles, and the same handful of rednecks win every race.. WOW!

[FDTT]

LMAO So true. I have only ever watched for the crashes, or if i want to watch the same thing OVER and OVER and OVER...

[pro3racer]

don't start this! I don't go bashing around other forums making fun of them for absolutly no apparent reason, neither should you.

[FDTT]

Hes not bashing anything. Its a simple question, Either answer the question or move onto the next thread, very simple. I stated why i woudl watch them, and its for the crashes. I find it entertaning because when one crashes the hole feild of cars tends to be right behind it. But i do not on the other hand enjoy the crashes that lead to serious injurey or dead.

[Zodiac]

I use to watch it alittle bit when I was a kid but then I grew out of it, realizing that there is races that I think are more entertaining such as Rally, Gran Prix, and LeMans.

Overall, I dont think Nascar is that bad. The only reason I dont like it is because there doesnt seem to be any excitement in any of it. It takes at least an hour (sarcasm) for someone to get ahead of another where as in GT races it happens every second.

[SabreKhan]

Originally Posted by Ricochet

the races go on forever

That's kind of the point of endurance racing, is it not? NASCAR also has sprint series, though, if you're interested. Just visit your local dirt track on any given Friday night if you want a shorter NASCAR race.

Originally Posted by Ricochet

all they do is drive in circles

They're usually ovals, tri-ovals, or some variation on that theme, actually, which means they have turns and straights, just like a road course. If you think it takes any less skill, you're kidding yourself. They just happen to all be left turns, and most of the time are very high-speed left turns. Although if you watch the race at Martinsville, they're much slower, tighter lefts. NASCAR's major series also run five road races (one in the truck series, two in Busch, and two in Nextel). Plus, the driving in circles makes it so that you can watch the whole race at once instead of just one little snippet of the course at a time, and drivers have to deal with lap traffic more often which makes the race much more interesting and difficult.

Originally Posted by Ricochet

and the same handful of rednecks wins every race

Joe Nemecheck won this past weekend. Last time he won a race was last year sometime. The closest finish in NASCAR history (less than four inches, after ten or so laps of back and forth lead changes) was won by Ricky Craven last year, and he's not good enough to even have a ride this year. Granted, the same ten or twelve guys win eighty percent of the races, but ten or twelve guys is a quarter of the field. What other major series has the percentage of winners per racers that NASCAR does? There are forty some-odd races in the NASCAR calendar, and everybody was amazed when Ryan Newman won eight of them last year. Granted, you occasionally have a Petty or a Gordon come along and just dominate for a year or so, but then everybody else catches up. It's the same in every other racing series (Schumacher, Said, Solberg).

Plus, the top ten are hardly rednecks anymore. The standings as they are as of this posting, and their places of origin:
1) Kurt Busch - Las Vegas, definitely not redneck.
2) Dale Earnhardt, Jr. - South Carolina... OK, he's a redneck. But a popular redneck.
3) Jeff Gordon - Southern California, anti-redneck.
4) Elliott Sadler - West Virginia, and a country boy no doubt.
5) Mark Martin - Arkansas, but not really redneckish.
6) Tony Stewart - Started his career racing carts in Indiana, not redneck.
7) Matt Kenseth (reigning champ) - Wisconsin, Yankee.
8) Ryan Newman - Indiana, not redneck.
9) Jimmie Johnson - California, also not redneck.
10) Jeremy Mayfield - Kentucky, country boy.

So we can see that only four of the top ten are even from the South, and Mark Martin and Jeremy Mayfield are so far outside the redneck stereotype that they shouldn't count as rednecks. Elliott Sadler and Dale Earnhardt, Jr., are the only two that could even possibly be considered redneck. However, Junior runs his own business (Chance 2, not DEI) and builds racecars as a hobby (could Schumacher fix his own car if it was broken?). Sadler is a really stand-up guy, but I dont' know what he does in his spare time. Junior and Sadler are both really country, but I wouldn't call them redneck. Neither of them stands around in a wife-beater and a John Deere hat smoking a cigarette and drinking a Coors, nor do either of them drive jacked up trucks (nothing against jacked up trucks or Coors). Both of them have prettier dates to the movies, drive better cars, and live in nicer houses than anybody on this forum. If you want redneck racing, check out the monster truck circuit or your local tractor pull.

[brett85p]

Originally Posted by Ricochet

I mean the races go on forever, all they do is drive circles, and the same handful of rednecks win every race.. WOW!

Like it or not, it is by far the most watched motor sport in the US, how many people do you see watching open wheel racing?

Nascar has close racing, some contact, and damn good marketing, thats why people watch.

[jrsautografx]

I love NASCAR, been bleeding Petty Blue since '72. NASCAR is not a bunch of overpaid egomaniacal morons playing kids game. Case in point, the basketball fight the other night, I giggled might butt off when I saw that. People who pay ridiculously high ticket prices for lousy seats, in statdiums built with your tax dollars for a team that hasn't made the playoffs in 10 years deserve everything they get. Granted NASCAR has had a few moments in the last few years but they handle them quickly and effectively. We as fans may not agree with some of the punishments and fines, but thats just the way that goes. I have a son and hope he gets into motorsports when he gets older, just 1 now. Well thats what i have to say. Thanks.

[Tach_it]

I watch all kinds of racing drag, WRC, F1, GT, NASCAR, any thing competitive. Trying to say NASCAR racing is not difficult or complicated is ignorant. It may be a simple contcept with a big superspeedway(except for few road courses) racing in circles, these arent fuel injected, loaded with technology cars with live axles. Thats grassroots racing and many incredible drivers have done NASCAR and gone into other types of racing. This type of racing is just as competitive as any other if not more, going around at 180 plus mph, dealing with traffic while passing people, and deal with understeer and oversteer, and other stuff just LIKE IN OTHER RACING. its all the same, some motorsports are more appealing to other people. keep on burnin the rubber

[Ricochet]

Originally Posted by Tach_it

This type of racing is just as competitive as any other if not more

Yeah, I'd love to see jeff gordan strap into a 400hp citroen and plow through a rally course
(where btw, they have to make right hand turns)

[pro3racer]

well, he did stap in a F1 car and do some laps if i'm not mistaken. And lets reverse that, let a rally driver, strap in a martinsville, and make his car last, or at talladegga, and not wreck.

[The Lambrusco Kid]

WRC cars are limited to 300HP.

Originally Posted by Ricochet

Yeah, I'd love to see jeff gordan strap into a 400hp citroen and plow through a rally course
(where btw, they have to make right hand turns)

[Layla's Keeper]

Should I mention that Gordon HAS strapped into a Rally car for the Race of Champions (along with Jimmy Johnson) and was able to beat the best in the world including Marcus Gronholm?

And that he's going to be doing it again, except also against Michael Schumacher, Sebastian Bourdais, and Tony Kanaan?

And that he drove a Williams F1 car (FW24 chassis I believe) at Indianapolis and was quick enough to qualify within 107% of the top time for the gran prix the year the car was built, and Sir Frank Williams thought enough of Gordon to put him on the list of people he'd want driving on his team (didn't materialize because Gordon felt he didn't have the conditioning for the drive nor that he had enough time left in his career to be competitive).

Or let's talk about Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt Jr. Both have competed in Grand Am and ALMS races. In fact, both have contested for class and overall wins in Grand Am. Earnhardt Jr. has often said he wants to live out his daddy's dream and go to Le Mans, and if it weren't for the fact that the glut of the NASCAR season was around the same time as Le Mans, Chevy has said they would send him over as part of the Pratt & Miller Corvette factory team.

Tony Stewart frequently runs with Terry Borcheller in Grand Am races. He started in SRP1 with a Crawford LMP chassis and now runs with the #54 Crawford/Pontiac DSP team when NASCAR's schedule allows.

Don't dismiss NASCAR drivers as being somehow inferior to drivers in other disciplines simply because they're in NASCAR. Need I remind you that Christian Fittipaldi, John Andretti, Scott Pruett, and Hideo Fukuyama all proved more or less inept behind the wheel of a NASCAR stock car?

So far, Boris Said has proven to be the only modern day road racer that can competently wheel a stock car, while most stock car drivers have proven competence if not excellence behind the wheel of a road racing machine.

[kfoote]

I feel that several of the top NNC drivers could be competitive in F1 if they had chosen to go that direction. These include Jeff Gordon, Tony Stewart, Mark Martin, and Robby Gordon (fast, though I don't know how well his red-misted attitude would fly). They won't go to f1 because they're too old now, and that they'd have to take a pay cut to run in F1.

If you look at the top teams, Roush Racing and Hendrick Motorsports both have significant road racing backgroundand are in it because it's the biggest (and most profitable) form of motorsport in the USA.

[SabreKhan]

Speaking of Race of Champions, when does that happen again? I heard all the Gordon vs. Schumacher hype, but I don't remember when they said the race was happening...