I think this best describes why Nascar never hits it off in Europe, Asia, Africa, etc etc..

Give me a curvey back road and a free afternoon. I’d rather be driving!

But yeah, I agree about the stock cars. The current state of affairs makes it all too fake, and it forces the producers into manufacturing the soap-opera backstories in an attempt to differentiate one from another.

Bleah, fakery makes me sick!

So, for all our crying about stock cars going back to being stock cars, ain’t gonna happen.

then there’s the fun stuff where relatively poor men can race in such as 944 Cup, Spec Miata, ITA, ITS, Honda Challenge, etc. that are at a local road track…$10-$20 gets you in and enjoying some great grassroots based racing

1. STOCK cars. Not identical tube frame, plastic bodied wonders with a stick on grill to give it brand identity.

and most of all

2. They start racing in the rain!!! The old lady and I constantly watch MotoGP, 300kph on a motorcycle in a downpour if necessary. On a track that turns in both directions. Ditto World Superbike, and to a lesser extent AMA.

Real racers aren’t afraid of wet pavement.

Syke
Deranged Few M/C

What racer would participate in a series where the sanctioning body takes away any advantage that you’ve worked for and goes out of its way to manipulate race results?

The WWE has great athletes that can sommersault, dive from great hights, and perform other amazing feats. But no one can say that a pro wrestling match is the pinnacle of a competitive, athletic, sporting event. As such, an athlete in the WWE is a notch below.

NASCAR is about marketing FIRST, racing maybe comes in at number three. No RACER would participate in a series that doesn’t emphasize racing FIRST.

I’d much rather autocross than watch nascar even if I do get cooked in the hot sun. If driving a road course is not an option, attending an autocross is a viable substitue.

Fight’s over…

But I think what Noley tried to say is:

Take a random guy from the street and put him in a NASCAR and on an empty track, let him drive around for a day and his time wont be too far off the time of a pro driver.

Do the same with an F1 car and your guy wont get anywhere near the time of a professional.

“I remember once Ricky Rudd telling me that he could take anybody off the street who could fog a mirror and get them to drive around Daytona full throttle (as long as they didn’t panic and lift). But put them in the middle of 42 other cars and the bidding changed.”

And you’re right, my hypothhetical driver wouldn’t be as fast as a good SCCA amateur. But if you just stuck someone with some reasonable ability and training on an oval in a NASCAR racer and started the clock and let them crank out some laps I think their times would be respectable before too long. 80% might be about right, but of course that wouldn’t even qualify: it is, for example, a 176 mph lap when the pole is 200 mph.

My point is really that the level of skill NASCAR drivers have is good for what and how they drive, but it’s a notch or two below the guys who make a living in open wheel cars, especially F1. There’s a reason FI is called the World DRIVER’S Championship.

The cars are about as interesting as hot-rodded Yugos
The drivers seem to belong to the same ego-thumping personality cults as clowns like Barry Bonds or Roger Clemons.
NASCAR is more about being able to drive fast in traffic than anything else.
While driving a NASCAR car fast enough to win certainly requires skill, I suspect that a lot of gearheads with a week at Bondurant’s under their belts could run at 80 to 90% as fast. That’s hardly the case in F1.

But I don’t blame the sport itself for that, just an intersting fact. And I suspect that’s changing as NASCAR keeps going more mainstream – even Jim Rome is becoming a NASCAR booster.

Hello, when were any of these drivers F1 champs? Low level second raters is what they are, so it’s no wonder they couldn’t master F1. Of course, most of them never tried. This is a very ignorant article – well below TTACs’ usual standard.

And they cut my WRC for that?

- You run the stock body, no ground effects or crap like that. Use 3D virtual templates and laser measurement. You don’t like your aero package? Whine to you manufacturer, not us.

- Chop the spoler to 3″ and remove the angle restriction. What to do a Yarborough and lay it all the way back in qualifying? It’s your call…and your butt.

- Your race car spins the same set of wheels your production car does. Can’t wait to see how fast the Monte Carlo suddenly becomes RWD!

- Bring back homogulation; that way we’ll have some cool cars to buy!

- Shrink the engine down to 310 CI and let the engine-eers figure ‘em out. Eliminate the plate once and for all. Speeds may rise to about 200, but y’all can handle that.

- Bye bye Loudon, hello Rockingham and North Wilkesboro!

- New point system: Finish farther back than 20th? Zilch! That will elminate rolling roadkill. Pole would score points. Chase is laid waste; most points all season wins.

- “Lucky dog” is hereby euthinized.

- Shrink field to 36. Bottom feeder teams need to run Busch instead.

Bring back some real racin’!

I don’t like how they weigh a ton(3500lbs last I heard), or that the rules require them to run the same size tire front and back. Restrictor plates? What type of racing is that!?

NASCAR should be a technological R&D hot bed that revolutionary changes and advances come from. Not mobile billboards doing laps around a parade field.

Racing is insanely physical. I remember when he and I were lapping Maseratis at Road Atlanta (I know, I know) how much slower my lap times became as the day dragged on.

And the fastest I hit was 125mph. And we were just playing follow the leader.

Nascar dudes enter turns at 140mph and try to pass people.

Absolutely athletic.