It’s not my thing, but competitive driving in circles at a consistent 180-200mph (290-320kph) with a certain tolerance for bumping. That’s a non-trivial motor sport.
Its also a hell of a thing in person.
40 cars making 670hp screaming past at 300kmh… its fucking visceral. 25000 hp screaming past your seat in about a second or 2.
I also think top fuel drag racing on TV is boring as shit, but watching a top fuel dragster make a pass in real life is exciting.
at a consistent 180-200mph
Nah, that was a boring race. We’re all here for the wrecks and spinouts that allow some positioning changes.
Wrecks are what allow position changes? Clearly you’re not paying attention to the races.
Superspeedway races can have dozens of leader changes, let alone the absolute shitshow of position jockeying that is pack racing. There are hundreds of position changes per race on the big tracks. They’re the only tracks where an absolute random underdog has a high chance of winning. Drivers can go from last to first multiple times if they’re running well.
People talk shit about NASCAR all the time and their talking points are always based in ignorant assumptions. Its highly competitive contact racing with just as much attention to physics and engineering as any other series. They just don’t have hundreds of millions of dollars per team and have to run the same aero package as everyone else.
Its one of the most exciting series to watch. I’m saying this as a big fan of euro racing.
I’m not watching the races anymore. I was into it 90s-2000s, but then it started to become less of the old type racing. The superspeedways had a reputation then for being set positions if nothing happened, simply because you can’t stay topped out when you break draft to try and pass. Maybe some of that has changed with the new racing format that separates it into several miniraces.
Not talking shit, just years of experience watching the races back then. The NASCAR rules may have changed, but the physics of high speed aerodynamics haven’t.
for hours at a time, in the summer, usually in the South, in a car with no AC… and if you’re doing it right, the only thing visible ahead of you is the car in front’s rear end. I love it.
A given sport has to really hit a person at the right point in their lives for them to fall in love with it, and that usually at a fairly young age, but over the years I’ve very much come around to the notion that just because the charms and nuances are lost on me, that doesn’t mean they don’t exist.
