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What's wrong with auto racing in the US of A?

Motokid

Motokid

New Member
This one's got your name all over it muggle. :D

I used to watch Nascar. Got bored.

I uesd to watch Indy Car before the split to IRL and CHAMP.
Then they split and IRL was so boring I couldn't get interested, and CHAMP has just faded away.

America loves automobiles. America loves speed, flash, and excitement. So what's the problem? What is it with America that unless the cars go round-and-round, always turning left there's no interest? At least from a television perspective.

I would rather watch cars, especially open wheel cars, race at Laguna Seca, or Mid-Ohio than Indianapolis. America can't get into Formula 1 and I can understand that to a point since the last 5 years that series has gotten really boring as well. 6 cars running at the end with the leader 10 seconds ahead of second place...

Is it just that racing does not translate well to television, or is television doing something really wrong?
 
I was speaking more about the popularity of it.
Do they/ will they show it on national TV?

Will it have names like Unser, Foyt, Fitapaldi, Andretti, Mansell, Mears, Rahal?

Why is it that NASCAR can dominate the TV ratings even surpassing some of the major league sports like Baseball and Basketball yet a road course style racing league can't find a niche with viewers?
 
I checked out the CHAMP website and see that they have a full schedule of racing. Appears to be split between NBC, ABC and SpeedTV.

The question is how exciting will the racing be? I seem to remember much like F1 that it takes next to no time for the cars to get really spread out and the race for the lead always comes down to one or two guys and by the end the winner could almost coast to victory on the last lap. But that's what I remember.

I think the one thing Nascar has is a full grid of cars all within one second of each other in lap time. At the end of a long race the majority of racers are still on the same lap. In many cases the first 10 finishers are within seconds of each other.

Is that what's missing in open wheel racing?

I just can't quite figure out why oval track racing is so popular.
 
I don't watch Nascar, but the appeal of F1 for me is like the appeal of big tournament tennis--the same names and teams for a long time, vying for the top, with little adjustments making the big difference. The track layouts for F1 are all challenging, I like the internationality of it, and, well, damn, it's fast. The technology and difficulty are far superior to US racing. BTW, Scott Speed sucks at F1. He's just a feeble attempt to grow the US audience.

I've watched this season so far and my man Jenson Button is doing pretty well. Ditto the Renault team, who I like. Ferrari, of course, suffered when the pope died and they lost the papal blessing. Michael S. lost the holy glow.

I'm not a car freak. I like my guys--Jenson, Kimi, Alonso. I love the subtle commentary. I really abhor the US style of commentators yelling the whole race and then the teams yelling and all the people jumping up and down and the testosterone-driven stupidity. It's like comparing a cock fight to sheep dog trials.

As for the excitment of who will win, anything can happen, though in F1, a good lead is a marvelous thing. Half the race is in qualifying for starting positions. And superior technology really counts.
 
But is there something about American TV coverage that makes NASCAr translate so well to the American public that F1 and other roadracing series doesn't have?

Personally I'd rather watch a roadrace than and oval race. But what is it about oval racing that America's seem to love so much?
 
I started a topic on Auto Racing in the General Chat area. There was very little interest. I am not participating in the discussion of your topic for the same reason. No one seems to be interested and there does not appear to be any knowledge of Auto Racing by the majority of TBF members. I belong to 5 Auto Racing Forums and do most of my posting there in regards to motorsports as they are extremely knowledgeable. Perhaps Doug would be interesting if you could get him to post on racing.
 
Doug Johnson said:
I certainly hope so. I just got back from stinking up an indoor cart track, but that's probably only interesting to me. What are the five forums?
Click to expand...
I sent you a PM listing the Auto Racing forums that I frequent. I have a topic going on one of the forums that has now reached well over 3600 posts. Doug, A wild guess but are you from Canada. Check out my topic in the TBF General Chat area on Do You Like Sports and take a look at the car that we raced.
 
Doug Johnson said:
guilty.

Sweet car and probably one of my favorite turns. I'll never forget Zanardi's pass there. That's got to be fun.
Click to expand...
Just from your one post on racing I kinda thought you were from Canada. We raced at Mosport. One of the best road tracks. We raced against Gentilozzi and he was also a help to out team and driver. There are some other things I could say.....but I will refrain. :)
 
Marybeth Harrison, from Vancouver, BC, was our driver. She won the Formula Driver Championship in Canada. She also raced in the F-2000 Bridgestone Series among other racing series. However, the Trans Am Series with us was the pinnacle for her. Did you know of Ashley Taws from the Toronto area. She really had some potential before her unfortunate off-track accident. There is another girl racing at Sunset Speedway near Toronto, Amanda Connolly. I haven't checked up on her for a year or two and don't know how she is doing now. A few years ago I came pretty close to picking up a big sponsor for us with her driving but it fell apart.

I consider Mosport one of the 5 best road tracks in North America.
oh, no, I do not race....too old. I did the marketing. Come to think of it paul newman was not too old. He ran a professional race at age 80 with some of the best drivers anywhere as competition. He is one heck of a good guy.
 
Maybe I did not word it correctly but I was not really talking about the state of racing so much as how television covers it which is why I did this in the Film and TV forum.

Is there some reason connected with how television in America covers racing that oval track Nascar has grown so quickly and completely, yet any open wheel or other form of true roadracing just does not catch on?

I am not a basher of Nascar. I understand that Nascar is not just a bunch of hillbillies going in circles and that anybody can drive in a circle. I used to raodrace motorcycles and I get the physical and mental aspects of pushing the limits of body and machine for an extended period of time.

I'm just confused as to why F1 is so popular in Europe, England and even Canada but not in America? Why the older Indy Car series never really caught on?
 
I guess I'm having trouble expressing the question?

Does oval track racing lend itself to television coverage better than roadracing?

Is the popularity of NASCAR based on that aspect of media coverage?

Is it simply that it's easier to see the whole track, and therefore easier for TV to cover the race?

Is it that NASCAR supposedly uses cars that we can all go buy on Monday?

What's your idea of why NASCAR can be so popular, and all the rest of racing barely registers on the radar?
 
It's pretty simple. I’m really not into horseracing, but I watch the Kentucky Derby. I'm not really into college basketball, but I watch March madness.

People who aren't hard-core racing fans will watch what everyone else is watching. That used to be the Indy 500, where the best drivers raced every year to prove who was best of all. Track management decided they didn't need the best drivers anymore. After that, NASCAR got all the hype and money, so that is what people watch.

So popularity has more to do with marketing/politics/management than racing issues.

There’s only something "wrong" with the status quo if you don't like NASCAR. Personally, I like NASCAR, the only issue I have is that the most popular tracks are the ones that I enjoy least: the ones where the driver never touches the break and sometimes doesn't even lift his foot off the accelerator, except to pit.

So if you want to watch what everyone else is watching, watch NASCAR. If you like a certain kind of motor racing, watch that. Personally, I enjoy all forms of motor racing, but prefer Champ Car. Their open wheel cars are sexy, but the cars are equal which means - theoretically at least - every driver has a chance. You can’t say that about F1, though I like F1 too.

If you like motorcycle road racing, I’d suggest checking out Champ Car. The timing of your question, however, might be very poor. There are rumours that Champ Car and IndyCar have already agreed to merge next season and they are just waiting until May to make an announcement. We shall see.
 
Certainly having CART/CHAMP and the IRL combining would be a good move as long there's a good mix of oval and road courses.

Hopefully having more races, and a good mix of tracks will benefit everybody.

I think Nascar having a race almost every weekend helps keep the fans involved. Having a month between races does not seem to work very well.
 
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