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[Eminem]

to again quote ATH panelists:

"Racing? pfft. It's all left turns."
"Hey Tony, I drove my car to work today, am I an athlete?"


I don't have anything against racing, I just don't see its appeal. I'd even rather watch a good golf event where Mickelson is up by 2 strokes going into the final round, for example.

 

[Gregory]

What happened to Indy Car racing? All i hear about is freaking Nascar. Did Indy car die or something? Isn`t Indy car pretty similar to Formula 1, in that they race mostly on similar kind of tracks, and not ovals only?

 

[Shinobi]

... uh, duh?

NASCAR is by far, a very redneck sport that's supported by legions of rednecks. And - yes! - most of America is rednecks. It's amazing what they can do when they put their minds to it.

I mean, have you seen our President?

:lol

I don't have anything against racing, I just don't see its appeal. I'd even rather watch a good golf event where Mickelson is up by 2 strokes going into the final round, for example.

That's really not the point. I don't even count myself as a NASCAR fan as I don't find oval racing particularly interesting to watch on TV (I only watch the Daytona, road course and night races), but it doesn't mean I'm gonna say they're not athletes. Same with figure skating...I don't find that sport interesting at all, but to deny that those skaters are athletes is to be a complete idiot.

Put one more way, I like the NFL and CFL, and loathe NCAA football. So what does that mean, I think the pro footballers are athletes but the college guys aren't? :lol

It comes down to nothing more then being objective.

 

[Matlock]

I made a NASCAR drivin' robot one time. It consisted of a cinder block on the gas pedal and a stick that turned the wheel slightly to the left.

It beat Jeff Gordon!

 

[Shinobi]

What happened to Indy Car racing? All i hear about is freaking Nascar. Did Indy car die or something? Isn`t Indy car pretty similar to Formula 1, in that they race mostly on similar kind of tracks, and not ovals only?

Indy car racing had a split about a decade ago after various team owners and Indy track owner Tony George disagreed on the future of the series. Tony George formed IRL, a series that was all oval, and featured primarily American drivers. The rival owners formed CART, which had a mix of oval, road race and street courses, with a lot of international drivers.

For the first few years CART was cleaning IRL's clock, but the last five years has seen a definite shift, with IRL clearly being the front runner in this silly war. IRL has since added a few road courses to it's schedule, while CART survivied near-bankruptcy just over a year ago and is now known as Champ Car, with no ovals on the schedule. However it's meant that open wheel racing, which just a decade ago was the premier form of racing in the US, has fallen almost off the map in terms of mainstream attention, with only the Indy 500 race getting any real coverage. NASCAR has of course taken advantage of this fuckup big time, and it's a big reason why they've been allowed to become as big as they are.

Fans like me hope that IRL and Champ can reuninte soon and get back to building up open wheel as a strong alternative to NASCAR, but there's too many egos involved on both sides at present to allow that to happen.

I made a NASCAR drivin' robot one time. It consisted of a cinder block on the gas pedal and a stick that turned the wheel slightly to the left.

It beat Jeff Gordon!

:lol

 

[Gregory]

Indy car racing had a split about a decade ago after various team owners and Indy track owner Tony George disagreed on the future of the series. Tony George formed IRL, a series that was all oval, and featured primarily American drivers. The rival owners formed CART, which had a mix of oval, road race and street courses, with a lot of international drivers.

For the first few years CART was cleaning IRL's clock, but the last five years has seen a definite shift, with IRL clearly being the front runner in this silly war. IRL has since added a few road courses to it's schedule, while CART survivied near-bankruptcy just over a year ago and is now known as Champ Car, with no ovals on the schedule. However it's meant that open wheel racing, which just a decade ago was the premier form of racing in the US, has fallen almost off the map in terms of mainstream attention, with only the Indy 500 race getting any real coverage. NASCAR has of course taken advantage of this fuckup big time, and it's a big reason why they've been allowed to become as big as they are.

Fans like me hope that IRL and Champ can reuninte soon and get back to building up open wheel as a strong alternative to NASCAR, but there's too many egos involved on both sides at present to allow that to happen.






:lol

Thanks for a very good answer. That explains a lot.