Does anyone else here hate auto racing?

[SunDeck]

But you've gotta figure, there's something that brings 160,000 to 200,000 people to some race tracks at $40-$150 per ticket just to watch a single event, and many of them drive six or eight hours to do it. Are these people just too ignorant to realize how pointless and boring racing is, or could it be that they might have some insight into what is going on in the pits and on the track that the casual observer does not?

You mean these people?

[alex trevino]

You mean these people?

Some people should always wear a shirt

[TeamMorris]

No. I love it!! Many family members have done it for generations. Keep an eye out of the last name of Smith! It will be well known one of these days

[RedsFan75]

I've got several relatives who love Nascar. I never got into it. I do enjoy a Formula 1 race and some of the Ralley events, some of the other types of racing, but never really got into Nascar.

[WMR]

Driving is a skill NOT a sport.

[jmcclain19]

Kids don't go into their backyards to play NASCAR.

uh - I beg to differ with this one. Give a 6 year old a set of matchbox cars and they can entertain themselves for hours.

Take a 12 year old to a go kart track and take a wild guess what happen

Driving is a skill NOT a sport.

To play a little devil's advocate here. Racing isn't a sport but hitting a little white ball is?

I'm not the biggest Nascar fan in the world. Mostly due the last couple of years to the monsterious price hikes for tickets to get in. $80-100 a ticket to sit in the grandstands for an event just doesn't float my boat anymore.

But racing is quite the sport - and it takes a huge amount of athleticism and skill. One of my friends at work and I were talking about Rally Racing, which I've started watching on Speed Channel, and he told me to watch the Dakar Rally, which was just crazy as far as a sporting event goes. I once heard a driver for Indy racing tell an inquiring reporter that he didn't need to "go" in his suit during a several race because drivers dehydrated so badly over the course of the race that he never had any fluids in his body to release.

[redsfanmia]

I love it when racing is on sunday afternoons, i put it on then am asleep within 3 minutes. I just cant see the point of watching a bunch of guys going straight and turning left, a giant bore if you ask me.

[Dom Heffner]

uh - I beg to differ with this one. Give a 6 year old a set of matchbox cars and they can entertain themselves for hours.

Kids can also go in their backyard and play Strat-o-matic baseball, but that's not the same as playing baseball is it?

But racing is quite the sport - and it takes a huge amount of athleticism and skill.

Skill, yes- athleticism, no.

Tell me- what sort of physical training does one do for NASCAR? Jog? Lift weights? Kickbox?

Do they do leg presses so that they can hit the gas pedal harder?

It would seem that it would be a waste of time to physically train for a race in which the automobile does all the heavy leg work.

To play a little devil's advocate here. Racing isn't a sport but hitting a little white ball is?

If baseball were reduced to only hitting a little white ball then you might have a point, but there are many athletic abilites required to play the game other than just hitting.

There are different types of sports. Some require more skill- like golf, archery, and NASCAR, while others also demand that the participants be physically gifted.

NACAR is obviously a sport, but there is little to no athleticism involved.

[WMR]

It isn't a sport if there's no athleticism involved.

A test/contest of who can perform the skill the best? Yes. But I don't consider such "challenges/contests" to be sports.

The requisite hand-eye coordination needed? Does that make playing videogames a sport? Of course not.

Driving a car? Catching a fish? Not sports.

[kyred14]

Anyone who thinks NASCAR doesn't have any athleticism involved has obviously not seen a pit stop.

[KronoRed]

To me the real skill in Nascar is the teams, the drivers seem to be all about the same, but it's teams and owners that make the real difference.

[macro]

I love it when racing is on sunday afternoons, i put it on then am asleep within 3 minutes. I just cant see the point of watching a bunch of guys going straight and turning left, a giant bore if you ask me.

I'll repeat this from post #14 in this thread...

I think the vast majority of people who bash racing have never been around the sport or have never taken the time to understand it. Their minds are closed and that is that. It's kind of an attitude of "If I looked at it for fifteen minutes one time and didn't find it interesting, then it must be mind-numbing and pointless." But you've gotta figure, there's something that brings 160,000 to 200,000 people to some race tracks at $40-$150 per ticket just to watch a single event, and many of them drive six or eight hours to do it. Are these people just too ignorant to realize how pointless and boring racing is, or could it be that they might have some insight into what is going on in the pits and on the track that the casual observer does not?

By the way, I'm not about to enter the sport / not-a-sport argument. Trying to convince anyone on this one is about as easy as converting someone in a religious or political discussion. If someone feels that drivers and pit crew members are not athletes, I can respect that opinion. If they feel that, as a result, that auto racing is not a sport, I can respect that, too. If they have made the effort to understand the aspects of the event and, after developing that understanding, still feel that racing is just not something they could ever enjoy or appreciate, I can respect that. What I have a difficult time respecting is the opinion that racing is boring and pointless coming from folks who have admittedly never tried to learn what is taking place on, inside, and above that oval.

Let me finish by admitting, and this may come as a surprise, that auto racing is absolutely not one of my favorite things to watch on television. I haven't been to a race since 1999 and don't know when I will ever go back. I was involved with the sport to some extent for a few years, and still like to keep up with what is going on with certain people, but I don't have so much interest in who wins or loses these days. I'll also admit that I find it very difficult to sit through an entire race without flipping channels.

The point of my posts in this thread really isn't to sell anyone on how awesome, interesting, or entertaining auto racing is, but rather to discourage people from prejudging anything without first trying to understand it and maybe even appreciate it.

[IslandRed]

The point of my posts in this thread really isn't to sell anyone on how awesome, interesting, or entertaining auto racing is, but rather to discourage people from prejudging anything without first trying to understand it and maybe even appreciate it.

I'll go along with that, but I also think auto racing fans are like soccer fans or baseball fans or any other fans... people who love a sport tend to fall back on the "if you don't love it too, it's because you don't understand it" argument. Which is hogwash. I understand soccer plenty well enough, and the only time I'll watch it on TV is if the USA is playing in the World Cup. (I enjoy coaching my kid's team, but that's not because it's soccer, it's because it's my kid's team.) I understand car racing well enough, and I like NASCAR okay but other forms of it may not thrill me. I understand baseball well enough, and I love it. Vive le difference.

[Chip R]

Keep an eye out of the last name of Smith! It will be well known one of these days

Yeah, like we've never heard of that name before. :

[Dom Heffner]

The point of my posts in this thread really isn't to sell anyone on how awesome, interesting, or entertaining auto racing is, but rather to discourage people from prejudging anything without first trying to understand it and maybe even appreciate it.

I, too, see what you are saying and there is some truth here, but this also reminds me of peopole who have tried to talk me into liking the taste of beer.

I know what i like, and an understanding of something doesn't make me like it more most of the time, though it has happened before- I used to put down American Idol without having watched it and now I don't miss it.

Tennis and boxing became much more interesting once I understood the rules and scoring, but there has to be at least some interest there to begin with to get to that point. I've tried to watch NASCAR, and I'm not sure an understanding of it would make it better for me. I've tried watching it and it bores me to tears.