I have no problem with people not liking NASCAR. What I have a problem with is people being ignorant of NASCAR. I hear the same old garbage. "They only turn left", or, "People only watch for the crashes", etc, etc.
Is it true that a lot of people watch for the crashes? Absolutely. But that's not why I watch. I'll tell you, the most frustrating thing about NASCAR is the crashes. And true fans know this. Nothing is more annoying than having your favorite driver running in a pack of fifteen cars, and some idiot decides that he can fit a square peg in a round hole and turns into the car next to him. In a second, both because of the speed and the proximity that these drivers race at, you have almost no time to react, and you get caught up in a huge wreck that ends your day. I don't cheer this on, but the announcers and broadcasters sure do. But this isn't strictly a NASCAR tactic. I can't even remember how many times I've seen promo spots for other racing series on Speed TV where all the commercial features is crashes. Call it the Micheal Bay school of advertising.
But once you get into the NASCAR world, you realize that there is much more than "turning left". A lot of these drivers, although competitors on the track, are good friends off. They often get together to donate huge amounts of money to different charities. There is an emphasis on teamwork. You can be the fastest driver out on the track, but one mistake by a tire changer and you can loose 10 spots in a few tenths of a second. I think that is what makes NASCAR appealing to me, there is always something going on. It's not always about who is leading, there are cars passing cars on the track every lap, so I never find myself going, well, Johnson is still in first, I guess I'll turn it off. Not when Martin fighting for fifth place with Busch, neither of them giving an inch. When Juan Pablo Montoya joined NASCAR, he had this to say:
Formula One drivers are convinced that theyre so much better than anyone else, Montoya, who races alongside Dario Franchitti, the Scottish driver, for the Chip Ganassi team, said. When I was in F1, every week I was on the podium. It was cool, but is it satisfying? It wasnt, because it was the most boring races. The guy who started in front of you would drive away from you and the guy who was behind you would drop away from you, unless you ****ed up in qualifying and then you need to have a different pitstop strategy to beat them.
...
In Nascar, there are more than 40 cars racing wheel to wheel for up to three hours. Its harder here, Montoya said. When you run fifteenth, sometimes you think it sucks. But look at the big picture: fifteenth here is like sixth or seventh in F1, because there are twice as many cars. The incredible thing is here I run fifteenth or twentieth on average and there are four or five weeks in the year where I have a chance of winning. In F1 if you run sixth or seventh, you run sixth or seventh the whole year.
It doesnt matter if youre running for the lead, or for 30th, youre always racing somebody. Thats much better.
Although a little brash, I think he kind of scrapes at why a lot of people find NASCAR entertaining. There is just so much going on at a frantic pace that anything can happen, thats how I look at it. If people don't like the sport, I don't have any problem with it. But I've converted quite a few friends who thought it was stupid, who now watch it religiously, have their favorite drivers, and can't wait to get out to the track and watch a race in person. I think half the battle is people aren't willing to give it a chance and write it off way to earlier.
Now, I don't really watch too much F1, but I have respect for the sport. The sheer speeds and g-forces that those cars pull, it is just amazing to me. I can't wait to see Schumacher return at Valencia, even if only temporary. But I like racing in general, whether it be WRC, F1, IRL, NASCAR, WTCC, ALMS, whatever. The more the merrier, and I'm glad to see that Polyphony is going to run the gamut as far as diversity in GT5. It just makes GT a well-rounded racing game that everyone should be able to enjoy, I mean, isn't that the whole point?
