Question of the Day: Which Form of Motorsport do You Not Understand?
While most motoring enthusiasts have a love for motorsport in one form or another, we can’t all agree as to which form it should take. Which example of racing do you just not understand? Give us your opinion, in comments.
If you’ve got an idea for Question of the Day, a funny photo for Caption It, or just want to share a news tip, let us know at windingroadtips@gmail.com
Comments
X3 SoB
NASCAR! I mean really, archaic designs going in a circle. How stupid.
uragan
NASCAR makes no sense for so many reasons. No real connection to everyday cars, no real high-tech, no real challenge to the driver... I think that it even gives a bad reputation to all motor sports, because the only reason people watch it is because of the accidents. The more spectacular the accidents, the better, and yellow flags are an element in every race.
Jeff
Anything on a paved oval track.
Dino
Any form of oval racing. In what way is lapping an oval a better test of driving skill or automotive engineering than a race around a track with left AND right turns?
Dino
Wow! In the time it took me to type and post that, 3 other people said exactly the same thing!
I don't really get drag racing either but at least that's testing the ultimate something. Oval racing just seems to be a diluted form of motor sport.
7mge
NASCAR is probably one of those sports that is more fun to actually do than to watch. I'd be more interested if they let me drive.
Otto
Oval racing and Drag racing. I'm not saying it doesn't take skill, I just fail to see the appeal of going in a straight line.
GTA
NASCAR and drag racing are the most stupid motorsport. RAllY D best and F1
Brock
That goofy racing where they run with solar panels or other weird stuff powering their "cars".I say if that technology is so great, run with the big boys.
BobG
Drifting! Anything that has to be "judged" is not a true sport. Not that there isn't skill involved, but racing is simple, first one to complete the distance, or whoever is leading when time is up, wins.
I have to agree with all the comments above about NASCAR (NAPCAR). When did Toyota make a rear-drive car with a carbureted V-8 and a four-speed. Not to mention the fact that NAPCAR specifies the gear ratios for the transmission and differential for each track. So, outside of cheating (which they seem to do frequently), what can the teams do?
Anonymous
fail. drifting is not a motor sport.
it is a pastime.
Jeff
I'll continue the echo chamber and go for NASCAR. I mean, really? They drive the same car around a paved circle over and over again. Not too fun. I must admit I watch F1, but I know that it's boring at times. But at least they have sweet cars and they turn both directions in F1. But WRC is probably the best to watch. Bring it back, Speed Channel!!
Mike
NASCAR! Corporate hillbillies! Crappy cars, awful sponsorship, oval track, and drivers that are lucky the "sport" exists. Besides, 300 laps is way the hell too many.
Mike
...And its time slot prevents the tv station from showing football games Sunday afternoon. That's a sin.
Alan
Oval racing - that parody of NASCRAP by The Onion is hilarious.
mo
i think drag racing needs some talent from the driver. you know, to keep traction, timing for gear shifting and so. but NASCAR.... i don't know how a good driver becomes good. is it by total luck, does the driver in the oval race crosses his fingers during the race for luck. i never get it.
X3 SoB
mo, I'm suprised you don't like NASCAR, you're just the sort of dumbf*ck it appeals to. I guess that's why most real auto enthusiasts don't like it, it attracts knuckle-draggers and makes everybody who likes cars look bad to people with common sense. And mo, learn to use a Shift Key!
Jim
They ruined nascar after GM got tired of that rwd T bird whipping their @$$. That coupled with with GM switching to front wheel drive nascar had to make some kind of choice about the cars. They picked a cartoon.
Its a shame really, oval or not. If they would have stuck with "stock cars" the american car would be far more advanced than it currently is now. IMHO
James
NASCAR Truck Series, hands down.
mo
X3 SoB, how should i use the Shift Key?????
Ducati Minor
Drifitng.
DanD
NASCAR haters, the question was not which form of motorsport do you dislike, but rather which one do you not understand. Say what you want about NASCAR, what truly baffles me is Drifting. That looks about as much like a sport as ice dancing or synchronized swimming, at least to this untrained eye.
Kyle
Say what you want about NASCAR being antiquated technology or boring, but no other racing series has as much passing as NASCAR. There are more lead changes/passes in one NASCAR race than an entire F1 season. I'm a fan of both but NASCAR is the most exciting racing, while F1 is enjoyable for the speed and the technology.
To get back to the original question, I don't get drifting. Its not a sport, its an exhibition. Like somebody else above said, if you're being judged your performance, its not a true sport to me.
mo
when i said "i don’t know how a good driver becomes good. is it by total luck, does the driver in the oval race crosses his fingers during the race for luck. i never get it."
that meant i don't understand NASCAR. i don't understand where the talent is. anyone can step on the accelerator.
OMG did that shut up all of you hillbellies
mo
oopps i meant hillbillies.
The Stig
At the risk of making this thread sound like a broken record, I too have to say NASCAR. Really, even if you listen to drivers who have moved from other series, even they admit that the cars drive crappy. Who cares if you can go around a circle 300-400 times in a car with ancient technology and a name that looks familiar but bares no resemblance to what you can purchase in the showroom?
And drifting is dumb as he!! too.
Zelman
all racing takes talent.. Look at Juan Pablo in NASCAR. Not really the best at that. it takes skill to be able to drive a lane at 200 mph with 42 other people there. F1 has skill, too, but a formula car is under 1000 pounds and creates thousands of pounds of downforce, making the car stable at high speeds.
drifting isn't racing, just a motorsport.
but lawn mower racing (using the ones that aren't super-modified) seems to be a little odd.
chuck goolsbee
I don't get truck racing.
I own a pickup, which sits out in the barn and gets used occasionally for hauling hay, lumber, and dump runs. Damn useful tool. But the last thing I can imagine doing is driving it real fast. Whisky. Tango. Foxtrot. Mind you it seems to be a natural outgrowth of NASCAR, since the fans can relate at some level.
I don't get NASCAR either. Stock car racing made sense to me when they were actually STOCK cars. But the charade they put on these days is just bizarre.
Kyle, if passing is what you want, tune into a sports car race, such as Le Mans. When you have hundreds of cars on the course ranging from tiny 2 liters to big prototype monsters, it is nothing BUT passing, with right turns even!
--chuck
http://chuck.goolsbee.org
Scratch
Slot cars. I know grown men that spend ungodly amounts of money on racing them. I mean really. Grow up and move out of your mom's basement. You're worse than the World of Warcraft crowd.
Pocky Is God
NASCAR. Drag. Funny Cars truly baffles me.
Mark
Drag racing FWD cars. It's like an oxymoron.
Robert
NASCAR without a doubt
Brendan
NASCAR... seriously we are no longer running whiskey. It lost its roots and meaning long ago.
DaveZ
Monster trucks, tractor pulls and open wheel cars that don't turn left and right.
Paul In Jersey
Nascar ties with Drifting. Drag Racing takes second.
Jonathan Fung
Okay, good. I was afraid I'd be the only person coming in here feeling Un-American for not liking Nascar. But I guess the hoards agree. There's very little interesting about going around in a circle - no not a circle, an oval, it makes it more challenging.
chartguy
The Nascar truck series strikes me as making very little sense. Now, off-road truck racing, like the Baja 1000, that makes a lot of sense to me.
I don't mind ovals, but Nascar has become more like WWF on wheels. It's sad. Twenty-five years ago, they were real races. Today, it's show business, not racing. That doesn't make sense to me.
Dirt track sprint cars run on an oval, and I can enjoy watching them run, so it's not the oval that's the problem. It's the power structure, and they way that they've orchestrated the phantom "debris on the track" yellow flags, and fiddled with the rules, to the point that it has become a lottery among the top ten or so drivers. It's all designed to get the highest ratings, but even that has begun to fade. As it stops being a test of skill, the core fans are beginning to drift away, and the ratings are beginning to reflect that.
Scott
NASCAR, its not stock car racing anymore, that alone is confusing, when it was at its peak, it was pushing the big three to come up with better engine tech, now it has no purpose besides generating cash. If you want real motorsport, the Dakar rally is up at the top.....
FPF422
I'm with Ducati Minor on this one... Drifting.
About Nascar, there is much more than just going in circles (on an oval) and I agree, the cars and tech are totally outdated but racing on oval requires a lot of strategy and balls.
In Nascar, I must say, I don't like short tracks but otherwise I can appreciate the driver's job
btw, I'm not even American LOL
Drag racing is an other one where there is much more to the eye, it's more a reflex game than driving but it's far from being as easy as it looks. After the take off the cars are trying to wiggle out of their lines and it needs a lot of skills to hold them straight under full acceleration.
Robert C
Motorbike speedway. What the fa...
FPF422
btw, about the technology... some forms of races (Fun Cup, Super 7, Nascar,...) are indeed done with outdated cars if compared to the cars we use today, but technology is expensive so racing "outdated" cars give access to more people....
Dane
NASCAR..... Non Athletic Sport Centered Around Rednecks...
Brad
I don't understand drifting. How do you win? I'm also suprised that the enviromentalists haven't protested drifitng events for the amount of tire smoke that they pump into the air.
flummox
I agree that NASCAR needs turning to the right and alot of other things, but I do enjoy multiple lane restarts and the effect drafting has on the cars since they are just rolling bricks. I think that all racing should have that kind of excitement. On to the question at hand. I don't understand dragboats. I just don't see the joy in it.
kdude61
Tractor pulls. They're loud and smelly, but were suprisingly popular near where I grew up.
michael f
I don't understand NASCAR. It's like watching a road trip and if you're lucky you might see a crash - but thats what highlights are for anyways. Is it possible that it's as boring to drive as it is to watch??
Jack Maxwell
ALMS. Ten years and still no cars.
Jack Maxwell
Chuck-Hundreds of cars at LeMans? Try 55.
corsa
Hate to follow the crowd on this one, but I too just don't get the appeal of NASCAR. The cars are not exciting to look at, they are not exciting to listen to, they are not exciting to watch go around and around in a circle, and I don't get off on seeing cars wreck (I think a big draw of NASCAR to some people are the wrecks.)
The sights and sounds of ALMS, Formula 1, WRC, etc. can't be matched.
Russ Bellinis
I'm surprised that no one has mentioned low rider hopping. Also monster trucks and tractor pulls.
Post new comment