Formula 1 is perhaps the worst possible counter example you could use. Formula 1 is all about strict rules and winning is about working really hard within those rules to be the best. The rules are so strict they can’t even use the tires of their choice, instead the cars all have to use the exact same tires from the official tire supplier. And people love it.
Rules are what make a sport a sport. Sports without rules are just hobbies.
I wasn’t talking so much about rules as I was about not letting people do things that are dangerous. Limit the speed of the cars to 55 mph and let me know if it’s still interesting because that’s what bodybuilding is without drugs.
Body building is still dangerous without drugs. You don’t need to take steroids to ruin your joints doing weight lifting. Nobody watches weight lifting competitions to see who is going to drop dead on the spot from drug abuse, so your analogy to the danger of car racing doesn’t really apply.
You can find suppliers of real medical-quality steroids like this. Those are made “clean” on the factories that pass all the manufacturer requirements. Synthol is not good. It’s cheap and made god knows where. Are there some legal regulations that will test the quality? You can’t always tell if it’s made properly and won’t cause a reaction. There are lots of terrible cases of synthol use, read this, for example.