Were these guys racing on flint rock? Even cars that weren’t skidding started throwing sparks. Hmm, me smell fakery afoot.
Yes. Now in any racing, the top speed is only part of what makes a winner. It is a whole system where small things add up to winning or losing. Tire pressure, tread, how tight or loose the car’s suspension is, if the car has been damaged, messing up its aerodynamics, fuel economy, the right time to pit, pit crew time, etc etc.
NASCAR is the redneck cousin to Formula 1, which is considered more high brow, but there is a lot of technology and tuning that goes into it. So one can appreciate it on multiple levels if they get into it.
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This was actually on the TV at the restaurant I ate at last night, and there were at least 3 more after this one… It always amazes me how few major injuries these guys get racing…
Also, my aunt and uncle are big race fans, and they used to take me with them to see some of the local races. Not my sport of choice, but it was fun, especially on nights with a demolition derby!
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My 13-year-old who is suddenly obsessed with cars* watched the end of the race, but decided that rallying is cooler – I’m certain he’s never watched a rally and when/where do they come on TV, anyway? But he must’ve liked the idea on paper and, more importantly to him, they race Subarus.
*If anything like that can be in the blood, then that is. His great-grandfather was a mechanic (IIRC the only one in their small town), his grandfather (my dad) grew up working in the shop**, and not a small amount of this rubbed off on me.
**One of my uncle’s projects (my dad was 8 years younger) was an “Oldsmoford,” Ford engine in an Oldsmobile body or was it vice-versa?
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You are vastly overestimating the amount of ground clearance these cars actually have.
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Oh, I get that. And any motor sport has a gazillion variables - it’s what can make it unpredictable and exciting and I do enjoy watching F1, even these days when it has become rather more processional. But limiting top speed and forcing cars to ‘race’ in convoy formation throughout holds little attraction here, I’m afraid. If the only person ever to see clear road in front of them and be able to ‘go for it’ is the leader, and everyone else is just jockeying mere inches behind him, well, it sounds rather like the first lap of an F1 race but conducted where there are no real bends to liven things up. I wouldn’t want to watch a second or third or 199th lap of that. I can get nearly as much fun being the 20th car behind an articulated lorry trying to overtake another going downhill at half a mile an hour faster than the one on the inside on one of the dual carriageway sections of the A1*, and hoping to make it before he reaches the dip and the road starts to climb again. The tension there is unbearable. Rather more so than this, I expect. 
*A1 - famous long distance trunk route up the UK where everyone behaves like it is an autobahn but where there are actual roundabouts and only two lanes. Mostly full of trucks.
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Related: Last week I watched The Last Race (streaming on Amazon Prime), about the last remaining racetrack on Long Island. Wonderful little documentary, about people who race cars on weekends for the sheer love of it.
I grew up watching NASCAR when they all had different cars. Petty, Allison, Pearson, Yarborough, etc… That was enjoyable. Now all the cars look the same and the drivers complain if anything changes on one make vs another. It’s really all quite pointless now. I want to see them go to the dealership, buy a car, spend a day upgrading it and then go out and race.
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Thank you. Not the clip I had in mind, but an excellent replacement. Your unstinting public service does you credit. 
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We’d need to equip the Roombas with devices that puncture the lithium-ion batteries on a hard enough impact, for some extra sizzle.
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200 laps x 2.5 Miles per Lap = 500 Miles
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The surest sign that NASCAR is an actual sport is all the rules and regulations over the years that keep making it less fun to watch.
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That’s one of the great things about the internet- whatever lesser-known sport you’re into, there’s bound to be a community for it online.
And yes, Rallying is a very different beast to stock car racing. If Daytona is Americans versus aerodynamics, then rallying is Finns versus the track.
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I know you’re driving trollies but it’s interesting to think about when comparing sports and thinking about athletics, we get so focused on athletic feats that we forget that concentration and focus under physical duress is just as much a part of any sport. The focus required to complete a race at those speeds for that long must be absurd.
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“Auto racing, bull fighting, and mountain climbing are the only real sports. . . All others are games.”
–Ernest Hemingway
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Rallies don’t come on TV. They are reported in magazines. Perhaps this was invented by the Brits. The rally I do is the Lemons Rally, in which you get more points for having a crappier car. Got second place last year in a 1940 LaSalle hearse.
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Most of those cars blew tires. At that speed, the tire just disintegrates. So then you have wheel-on-concrete action. Guess what wheels are made of? Magnesium-aluminum alloy.
The one announcer likened it to the 4th of July. Chemically, he wasn’t far off.
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Mmm not in this case. Steel rims in NASCAR. Not a great deal of technological progress there since about 1970. They only quit using carburetors in the last 5 years fer chrissakes.
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