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You are wrong. 100% wrong. Most sports us a device of some type. Be it a basketball or bobsled. It is the users control of those devices and the skill, endurance etc... that makes it a sport so to speak. I can guarantee you that racing for 500 miles is a lot more demanding than a 100 yard Sprint or 18 holes of golf.That's why no one pays you a lot of money to watch you drive 700 miles. It's the difference between you going for a walk in your neighborhood and competing in a marathon. One's a sport, the other is not.They display the stars & stripes every race. Always have as far as I know.
I get your point about it not being a sport. I used to think that way until I got to drive one of those cars for 20 laps at top speed. The endurance to do that for 500 miles is insane.
Yabbut the car is doing the work.
Of course operating it, especially with that degree of attention, will stress the body out. That's why when I take a multi-hundred-mile drive I set a leisurely pace and don't try to pass everybody I see just because I see them. And when I get out of the car after 700 miles I feel just fine.
Neither drive is a "sport". If I were to walk that 700 miles, that would be a sport (and it used to be -- called Pedestrianism). But that would be using the body. As would sprinting, long-distance running or anything else using the body. But car racing uses machines as proxies.
It's hard to explain but if you ever experience it for yourself you would understand.
But the ball, or the sled, or the polevaulter's pole ---- isn't doing the actual work. It's just their tool.
I'm not saying it's not demanding. I have no doubt it is. But it's still the car doing the actual work.
If a NASCAR vehicle blows its engine --- it's done. Even if its driver is perfectly fine.
No, as Hemmingway said it is only a game.No that honor could easily go to golf, tennis or basketballDumbest "sport" in the planet. Cars going around in circles.Do you suppose the drivers will kneel? Will there be political posturing by them or their crews? Is this the last US sport to remain untainted politically or socially?
I personally haven't watched NASCAR in many years but may tune in today when I get home.
Tennis requires quickness, agility, hand/eye coordination and finesse, not to mention racquet handling.
That's a sport.
If you don’t think it takes skill to keep it on the track and avoid other obstacles at those speeds, outmaneuver is other drivers, you are fooling yourself. Ones skill level makes the difference between a win or not, just as a quarterbacks does.
No, as Hemmingway said it is only a game.No that honor could easily go to golf, tennis or basketballDumbest "sport" in the planet. Cars going around in circles.Do you suppose the drivers will kneel? Will there be political posturing by them or their crews? Is this the last US sport to remain untainted politically or socially?
I personally haven't watched NASCAR in many years but may tune in today when I get home.
Tennis requires quickness, agility, hand/eye coordination and finesse, not to mention racquet handling.
That's a sport.
They also display a lot of Southern Traitor flags too.They display the stars & stripes every race. Always have as far as I know.Is this the last US sport to remain untainted politically or socially?
Driving a car isn't a 'sport' first of all. As far as political taint though, if they're not playing a national anthem --- and like real sports there's no reason they would ---- then yes they would be untainted.
I wouldn't bet on it though. The jingoists have been foisting this mob mentality shit for literally a hundred years.
I get your point about it not being a sport. I used to think that way until I got to drive one of those cars for 20 laps at top speed. The endurance to do that for 500 miles is insane.
Well..being a gun free zone is an open invitation for shooters...as we've been told about schools and movie theaters.Perfect for another democrat to start shooting huh? I hope not.Do you suppose the drivers will kneel? Will there be political posturing by them or their crews? Is this the last US sport to remain untainted politically or socially?
I personally haven't watched NASCAR in many years but may tune in today when I get home.
If you don’t think it takes skill to keep it on the track and avoid other obstacles at those speeds, outmaneuver is other drivers, you are fooling yourself. Ones skill level makes the difference between a win or not, just as a quarterbacks does.
Nobody said it doesn't require "skill". We're saying it's not a "sport".
Hell, cooking, playing the violin, speaking a foreign language, designing a building, etc all require skill but they're not "sports". And I've maneuvered my own car out of some dicey near-collisions, but it was never a "sport".
Hopefully, that lesson's been learned.Don't you think it would have been smarter for that "majority" to have gone out and voted instead of complaining after the fact?Dumbest "sport" in the planet. Cars going around in circles.Do you suppose the drivers will kneel? Will there be political posturing by them or their crews? Is this the last US sport to remain untainted politically or socially?
I personally haven't watched NASCAR in many years but may tune in today when I get home.
And if athletes, media, youngsters, artists, most American are expressing their feelings maybe is time to listen.
Just because a minority managed to vote it the Orange, they can't silence the majority
Not to get off subject but today marks the 17 year anniversary of the Earnhardt crash. Dale was my most favorite.
God bless you and his family always!!!
Holly
Here is an article of why it is considered a sport-
4 Reasons Auto Racing Is a “Real” Sport and Racing Drivers Are Athletes
...There’s a reason Ernest Hemingway valued motor racing as one of the most extreme sports on the planet, and I’ll be exploring why it should still be viewed as such today...
Drivers Sweat Up to 9 lb / 4 kg of Their Body Weight
If you think sitting in a race car is a cozy job, think again. As part of the engineers’ efforts to strip as much weight from race cars as possible and to keep only the necessary parts, they feature few creature comforts. The seat’s only job is to ensure drivers don’t get tossed around in corners, and there’s no air conditioning, which they would surely wish for at races like the Malaysian Grand Prix, where humidity goes up to 80% and temperatures regularly exceed 104°F / 40°C.
Spending any amount of time in these conditions while wearing five-layer fireproof race overalls is not a happy time, and these guys do it for up to two hours or more depending on the racing series. It can be even worse for drivers racing in closed-cockpit cars, inside of which temperatures frequently surpass 120°F / 49°C.
That heat causes more than mere discomfort, as the average F1 driver sweats up to 8.8 lb / 4 kg of his body weight throughout a Grand Prix. Studies have shown losing that much body weight can cause a significant drop in reaction times and mental focus, which is one of the reasons drivers drink up to 2 gallons / 7.6 liters of water before hot races. But compared to the rest of the ordeal of auto racing, that’s the easy part...
...
Their Heart Rate Goes Up to 190 BPM
While driving around town, your heart rate probably doesn’t go up very much, if at all. And why would it? Short of getting into a collision or being new to driving, there’s little reason to get stressed behind the wheel. Yet an F1 driver’s heart rate averages around 170 beats per minute (BPM) throughout a race and regularly peaks at upward of 190 BPM, which approaches the maximum a human being can achieve without beginning to experience severe heart problems. We’ll explore why this happens when we get to g-forces, but for now let’s just look at what it means for the driver.
To maintain an average heart rate of 170 BPM over the course of a Grand Prix, F1 drivers must be extremely fit. They adhere to a very strict diet and exercise regime, as well as undergo intense cardiovascular training. As a result, they have a resting heart rate of around 40 BPM, down from 70 BPM for the average person. Just because they’re sitting down doesn’t mean they aren’t getting a workout. In fact, the cardio exercise of racing at a Grand Prix is akin to running a marathon...
...
The g-forces They Withstand Would Knock You Out
So let’s get to the meat of this: why do F1 drivers sweat so much and have such elevated heart rates during a race if all they do is sit in a car and turn a steering wheel? The answer is g-forces. Just because drivers don’t actively move in the traditional way that we expect athletes to move doesn’t mean they aren’t exercising. Perhaps what people like McNabb don’t understand is that unlike in most sports, F1 drivers don’t transfer their energy into something else, such as a ball, but rather resist the energy and stress that g-forces put on their bodies.
This is mostly due to the sheer acceleration, braking, and cornering performance of Formula 1 cars, but it’s hard to truly grasp this, or even the performance of less capable racing cars, without having experienced it oneself. However, comparing them to regular road cars can offer some perspective.
Most road cars can only generate about 0.8 g of force at the most. Even some supercars struggle to achieve 1 g in corners, and achieving this would require taking corners at speeds that would almost surely make your passenger accuse you of being a maniac. On the other hand, a Formula 1 car regularly produces 4 or 5 g in Grand Prix corners, which essentially makes everything feel 4-5 times heavier to the driver.
For example, the combined weight of a driver’s head and his helmet is around 16 lb / 7.25 kg—but at 5 g, that’s a whopping 80 lb / 36.3 kg of force being applied to the driver’s neck alone, which he must endure corner after corner, lap after lap, while keeping a clear head. Thanks to banked turns, even NASCARs are capable of taking corners at tremendous speeds, such as over 220 mph / 334 kph at Turn 1 of the Indy 500. When going through a corner like that, a driver who weighs 200 lb / 91 kg will feel like 1,000 lb / 454 kg. Not exactly a pleasant sensation.
Furthermore, it’s not ...
...
A Single Lapse in Focus Can Be Life-Ending
Let’s talk about that Hemingway quote for a moment. In a way, I shouldn’t be using it at all because the mentality behind it is exactly what leads people to say silly things like “X isn’t a real sport.” But it does highlight that for many years, auto racing was one of the riskiest sports in the world. Most Formula 1 drivers used to get in their car believing there was a 1-in-3 chance they wouldn’t survive to the finish line, and in fact 37 died between the 50s and 90s. Though auto racing is much safer today, accidents still happen, and death remains a very real possibility.
In most sports, a lapse in judgement, a brief loss of mental focus, or a simple mistake rarely carries a great deal of weight. At the worst, an athlete will miss out on scoring a goal, or perhaps in rare circumstances even cause themselves or their team to lose a tournament. In auto racing, a lapse in focus spanning just a fraction of a second can lead to a potentially career-ending crash. At 186 mph / 300 kph, the room for error is extraordinarily narrow and the penalty for making a mistake can be extreme. It is vital for F1 drivers to be in peak physical condition so that they can focus on the driving rather than on merely withstanding the g-forces and heat...
More at link
4 Reasons Auto Racing Is a “Real” Sport and Racing Drivers Are Athletes
If you don’t think it takes skill to keep it on the track and avoid other obstacles at those speeds, outmaneuver is other drivers, you are fooling yourself. Ones skill level makes the difference between a win or not, just as a quarterbacks does.
Nobody said it doesn't require "skill". We're saying it's not a "sport".
Hell, cooking, playing the violin, speaking a foreign language, designing a building, etc all require skill but they're not "sports". And I've maneuvered my own car out of some dicey near-collisions, but it was never a "sport".
Here is an article of why it is considered a sport-
4 Reasons Auto Racing Is a “Real” Sport and Racing Drivers Are Athletes
...There’s a reason Ernest Hemingway valued motor racing as one of the most extreme sports on the planet, and I’ll be exploring why it should still be viewed as such today...
Drivers Sweat Up to 9 lb / 4 kg of Their Body Weight
If you think sitting in a race car is a cozy job, think again. As part of the engineers’ efforts to strip as much weight from race cars as possible and to keep only the necessary parts, they feature few creature comforts. The seat’s only job is to ensure drivers don’t get tossed around in corners, and there’s no air conditioning, which they would surely wish for at races like the Malaysian Grand Prix, where humidity goes up to 80% and temperatures regularly exceed 104°F / 40°C.
Spending any amount of time in these conditions while wearing five-layer fireproof race overalls is not a happy time, and these guys do it for up to two hours or more depending on the racing series. It can be even worse for drivers racing in closed-cockpit cars, inside of which temperatures frequently surpass 120°F / 49°C.
That heat causes more than mere discomfort, as the average F1 driver sweats up to 8.8 lb / 4 kg of his body weight throughout a Grand Prix. Studies have shown losing that much body weight can cause a significant drop in reaction times and mental focus, which is one of the reasons drivers drink up to 2 gallons / 7.6 liters of water before hot races. But compared to the rest of the ordeal of auto racing, that’s the easy part...
...
Their Heart Rate Goes Up to 190 BPM
While driving around town, your heart rate probably doesn’t go up very much, if at all. And why would it? Short of getting into a collision or being new to driving, there’s little reason to get stressed behind the wheel. Yet an F1 driver’s heart rate averages around 170 beats per minute (BPM) throughout a race and regularly peaks at upward of 190 BPM, which approaches the maximum a human being can achieve without beginning to experience severe heart problems. We’ll explore why this happens when we get to g-forces, but for now let’s just look at what it means for the driver.
To maintain an average heart rate of 170 BPM over the course of a Grand Prix, F1 drivers must be extremely fit. They adhere to a very strict diet and exercise regime, as well as undergo intense cardiovascular training. As a result, they have a resting heart rate of around 40 BPM, down from 70 BPM for the average person. Just because they’re sitting down doesn’t mean they aren’t getting a workout. In fact, the cardio exercise of racing at a Grand Prix is akin to running a marathon...
...
The g-forces They Withstand Would Knock You Out
So let’s get to the meat of this: why do F1 drivers sweat so much and have such elevated heart rates during a race if all they do is sit in a car and turn a steering wheel? The answer is g-forces. Just because drivers don’t actively move in the traditional way that we expect athletes to move doesn’t mean they aren’t exercising. Perhaps what people like McNabb don’t understand is that unlike in most sports, F1 drivers don’t transfer their energy into something else, such as a ball, but rather resist the energy and stress that g-forces put on their bodies.
This is mostly due to the sheer acceleration, braking, and cornering performance of Formula 1 cars, but it’s hard to truly grasp this, or even the performance of less capable racing cars, without having experienced it oneself. However, comparing them to regular road cars can offer some perspective.
Most road cars can only generate about 0.8 g of force at the most. Even some supercars struggle to achieve 1 g in corners, and achieving this would require taking corners at speeds that would almost surely make your passenger accuse you of being a maniac. On the other hand, a Formula 1 car regularly produces 4 or 5 g in Grand Prix corners, which essentially makes everything feel 4-5 times heavier to the driver.
For example, the combined weight of a driver’s head and his helmet is around 16 lb / 7.25 kg—but at 5 g, that’s a whopping 80 lb / 36.3 kg of force being applied to the driver’s neck alone, which he must endure corner after corner, lap after lap, while keeping a clear head. Thanks to banked turns, even NASCARs are capable of taking corners at tremendous speeds, such as over 220 mph / 334 kph at Turn 1 of the Indy 500. When going through a corner like that, a driver who weighs 200 lb / 91 kg will feel like 1,000 lb / 454 kg. Not exactly a pleasant sensation.
Furthermore, it’s not ...
...
A Single Lapse in Focus Can Be Life-Ending
Let’s talk about that Hemingway quote for a moment. In a way, I shouldn’t be using it at all because the mentality behind it is exactly what leads people to say silly things like “X isn’t a real sport.” But it does highlight that for many years, auto racing was one of the riskiest sports in the world. Most Formula 1 drivers used to get in their car believing there was a 1-in-3 chance they wouldn’t survive to the finish line, and in fact 37 died between the 50s and 90s. Though auto racing is much safer today, accidents still happen, and death remains a very real possibility.
In most sports, a lapse in judgement, a brief loss of mental focus, or a simple mistake rarely carries a great deal of weight. At the worst, an athlete will miss out on scoring a goal, or perhaps in rare circumstances even cause themselves or their team to lose a tournament. In auto racing, a lapse in focus spanning just a fraction of a second can lead to a potentially career-ending crash. At 186 mph / 300 kph, the room for error is extraordinarily narrow and the penalty for making a mistake can be extreme. It is vital for F1 drivers to be in peak physical condition so that they can focus on the driving rather than on merely withstanding the g-forces and heat...
More at link
4 Reasons Auto Racing Is a “Real” Sport and Racing Drivers Are Athletes
If you don’t think it takes skill to keep it on the track and avoid other obstacles at those speeds, outmaneuver is other drivers, you are fooling yourself. Ones skill level makes the difference between a win or not, just as a quarterbacks does.
Nobody said it doesn't require "skill". We're saying it's not a "sport".
Hell, cooking, playing the violin, speaking a foreign language, designing a building, etc all require skill but they're not "sports". And I've maneuvered my own car out of some dicey near-collisions, but it was never a "sport".
You still don't get it.
Everybody sweats, everybody experiences stress and takes risks. That's not what comprises a "sport".
It still comes down to this --- the machine is doing all the work. If you can replace what the driver is doing with another machine (computer) --- then you don't have a sport.
Do you suppose the drivers will kneel? Will there be political posturing by them or their crews? Is this the last US sport to remain untainted politically or socially?
I personally haven't watched NASCAR in many years but may tune in today when I get home.
If a sport can practiced by an overweight person is not a sport (football, NASCAR, baseball)Here is an article of why it is considered a sport-
4 Reasons Auto Racing Is a “Real” Sport and Racing Drivers Are Athletes
...There’s a reason Ernest Hemingway valued motor racing as one of the most extreme sports on the planet, and I’ll be exploring why it should still be viewed as such today...
Drivers Sweat Up to 9 lb / 4 kg of Their Body Weight
If you think sitting in a race car is a cozy job, think again. As part of the engineers’ efforts to strip as much weight from race cars as possible and to keep only the necessary parts, they feature few creature comforts. The seat’s only job is to ensure drivers don’t get tossed around in corners, and there’s no air conditioning, which they would surely wish for at races like the Malaysian Grand Prix, where humidity goes up to 80% and temperatures regularly exceed 104°F / 40°C.
Spending any amount of time in these conditions while wearing five-layer fireproof race overalls is not a happy time, and these guys do it for up to two hours or more depending on the racing series. It can be even worse for drivers racing in closed-cockpit cars, inside of which temperatures frequently surpass 120°F / 49°C.
That heat causes more than mere discomfort, as the average F1 driver sweats up to 8.8 lb / 4 kg of his body weight throughout a Grand Prix. Studies have shown losing that much body weight can cause a significant drop in reaction times and mental focus, which is one of the reasons drivers drink up to 2 gallons / 7.6 liters of water before hot races. But compared to the rest of the ordeal of auto racing, that’s the easy part...
...
Their Heart Rate Goes Up to 190 BPM
While driving around town, your heart rate probably doesn’t go up very much, if at all. And why would it? Short of getting into a collision or being new to driving, there’s little reason to get stressed behind the wheel. Yet an F1 driver’s heart rate averages around 170 beats per minute (BPM) throughout a race and regularly peaks at upward of 190 BPM, which approaches the maximum a human being can achieve without beginning to experience severe heart problems. We’ll explore why this happens when we get to g-forces, but for now let’s just look at what it means for the driver.
To maintain an average heart rate of 170 BPM over the course of a Grand Prix, F1 drivers must be extremely fit. They adhere to a very strict diet and exercise regime, as well as undergo intense cardiovascular training. As a result, they have a resting heart rate of around 40 BPM, down from 70 BPM for the average person. Just because they’re sitting down doesn’t mean they aren’t getting a workout. In fact, the cardio exercise of racing at a Grand Prix is akin to running a marathon...
...
The g-forces They Withstand Would Knock You Out
So let’s get to the meat of this: why do F1 drivers sweat so much and have such elevated heart rates during a race if all they do is sit in a car and turn a steering wheel? The answer is g-forces. Just because drivers don’t actively move in the traditional way that we expect athletes to move doesn’t mean they aren’t exercising. Perhaps what people like McNabb don’t understand is that unlike in most sports, F1 drivers don’t transfer their energy into something else, such as a ball, but rather resist the energy and stress that g-forces put on their bodies.
This is mostly due to the sheer acceleration, braking, and cornering performance of Formula 1 cars, but it’s hard to truly grasp this, or even the performance of less capable racing cars, without having experienced it oneself. However, comparing them to regular road cars can offer some perspective.
Most road cars can only generate about 0.8 g of force at the most. Even some supercars struggle to achieve 1 g in corners, and achieving this would require taking corners at speeds that would almost surely make your passenger accuse you of being a maniac. On the other hand, a Formula 1 car regularly produces 4 or 5 g in Grand Prix corners, which essentially makes everything feel 4-5 times heavier to the driver.
For example, the combined weight of a driver’s head and his helmet is around 16 lb / 7.25 kg—but at 5 g, that’s a whopping 80 lb / 36.3 kg of force being applied to the driver’s neck alone, which he must endure corner after corner, lap after lap, while keeping a clear head. Thanks to banked turns, even NASCARs are capable of taking corners at tremendous speeds, such as over 220 mph / 334 kph at Turn 1 of the Indy 500. When going through a corner like that, a driver who weighs 200 lb / 91 kg will feel like 1,000 lb / 454 kg. Not exactly a pleasant sensation.
Furthermore, it’s not ...
...
A Single Lapse in Focus Can Be Life-Ending
Let’s talk about that Hemingway quote for a moment. In a way, I shouldn’t be using it at all because the mentality behind it is exactly what leads people to say silly things like “X isn’t a real sport.” But it does highlight that for many years, auto racing was one of the riskiest sports in the world. Most Formula 1 drivers used to get in their car believing there was a 1-in-3 chance they wouldn’t survive to the finish line, and in fact 37 died between the 50s and 90s. Though auto racing is much safer today, accidents still happen, and death remains a very real possibility.
In most sports, a lapse in judgement, a brief loss of mental focus, or a simple mistake rarely carries a great deal of weight. At the worst, an athlete will miss out on scoring a goal, or perhaps in rare circumstances even cause themselves or their team to lose a tournament. In auto racing, a lapse in focus spanning just a fraction of a second can lead to a potentially career-ending crash. At 186 mph / 300 kph, the room for error is extraordinarily narrow and the penalty for making a mistake can be extreme. It is vital for F1 drivers to be in peak physical condition so that they can focus on the driving rather than on merely withstanding the g-forces and heat...
More at link
4 Reasons Auto Racing Is a “Real” Sport and Racing Drivers Are Athletes
If you don’t think it takes skill to keep it on the track and avoid other obstacles at those speeds, outmaneuver is other drivers, you are fooling yourself. Ones skill level makes the difference between a win or not, just as a quarterbacks does.
Nobody said it doesn't require "skill". We're saying it's not a "sport".
Hell, cooking, playing the violin, speaking a foreign language, designing a building, etc all require skill but they're not "sports". And I've maneuvered my own car out of some dicey near-collisions, but it was never a "sport".
If a sport can practiced by an overweight person is not a sport (football, NASCAR, baseball)
If a sport can practiced by an overweight person is not a sport (football, NASCAR, baseball)Here is an article of why it is considered a sport-
4 Reasons Auto Racing Is a “Real” Sport and Racing Drivers Are Athletes
...There’s a reason Ernest Hemingway valued motor racing as one of the most extreme sports on the planet, and I’ll be exploring why it should still be viewed as such today...
Drivers Sweat Up to 9 lb / 4 kg of Their Body Weight
If you think sitting in a race car is a cozy job, think again. As part of the engineers’ efforts to strip as much weight from race cars as possible and to keep only the necessary parts, they feature few creature comforts. The seat’s only job is to ensure drivers don’t get tossed around in corners, and there’s no air conditioning, which they would surely wish for at races like the Malaysian Grand Prix, where humidity goes up to 80% and temperatures regularly exceed 104°F / 40°C.
Spending any amount of time in these conditions while wearing five-layer fireproof race overalls is not a happy time, and these guys do it for up to two hours or more depending on the racing series. It can be even worse for drivers racing in closed-cockpit cars, inside of which temperatures frequently surpass 120°F / 49°C.
That heat causes more than mere discomfort, as the average F1 driver sweats up to 8.8 lb / 4 kg of his body weight throughout a Grand Prix. Studies have shown losing that much body weight can cause a significant drop in reaction times and mental focus, which is one of the reasons drivers drink up to 2 gallons / 7.6 liters of water before hot races. But compared to the rest of the ordeal of auto racing, that’s the easy part...
...
Their Heart Rate Goes Up to 190 BPM
While driving around town, your heart rate probably doesn’t go up very much, if at all. And why would it? Short of getting into a collision or being new to driving, there’s little reason to get stressed behind the wheel. Yet an F1 driver’s heart rate averages around 170 beats per minute (BPM) throughout a race and regularly peaks at upward of 190 BPM, which approaches the maximum a human being can achieve without beginning to experience severe heart problems. We’ll explore why this happens when we get to g-forces, but for now let’s just look at what it means for the driver.
To maintain an average heart rate of 170 BPM over the course of a Grand Prix, F1 drivers must be extremely fit. They adhere to a very strict diet and exercise regime, as well as undergo intense cardiovascular training. As a result, they have a resting heart rate of around 40 BPM, down from 70 BPM for the average person. Just because they’re sitting down doesn’t mean they aren’t getting a workout. In fact, the cardio exercise of racing at a Grand Prix is akin to running a marathon...
...
The g-forces They Withstand Would Knock You Out
So let’s get to the meat of this: why do F1 drivers sweat so much and have such elevated heart rates during a race if all they do is sit in a car and turn a steering wheel? The answer is g-forces. Just because drivers don’t actively move in the traditional way that we expect athletes to move doesn’t mean they aren’t exercising. Perhaps what people like McNabb don’t understand is that unlike in most sports, F1 drivers don’t transfer their energy into something else, such as a ball, but rather resist the energy and stress that g-forces put on their bodies.
This is mostly due to the sheer acceleration, braking, and cornering performance of Formula 1 cars, but it’s hard to truly grasp this, or even the performance of less capable racing cars, without having experienced it oneself. However, comparing them to regular road cars can offer some perspective.
Most road cars can only generate about 0.8 g of force at the most. Even some supercars struggle to achieve 1 g in corners, and achieving this would require taking corners at speeds that would almost surely make your passenger accuse you of being a maniac. On the other hand, a Formula 1 car regularly produces 4 or 5 g in Grand Prix corners, which essentially makes everything feel 4-5 times heavier to the driver.
For example, the combined weight of a driver’s head and his helmet is around 16 lb / 7.25 kg—but at 5 g, that’s a whopping 80 lb / 36.3 kg of force being applied to the driver’s neck alone, which he must endure corner after corner, lap after lap, while keeping a clear head. Thanks to banked turns, even NASCARs are capable of taking corners at tremendous speeds, such as over 220 mph / 334 kph at Turn 1 of the Indy 500. When going through a corner like that, a driver who weighs 200 lb / 91 kg will feel like 1,000 lb / 454 kg. Not exactly a pleasant sensation.
Furthermore, it’s not ...
...
A Single Lapse in Focus Can Be Life-Ending
Let’s talk about that Hemingway quote for a moment. In a way, I shouldn’t be using it at all because the mentality behind it is exactly what leads people to say silly things like “X isn’t a real sport.” But it does highlight that for many years, auto racing was one of the riskiest sports in the world. Most Formula 1 drivers used to get in their car believing there was a 1-in-3 chance they wouldn’t survive to the finish line, and in fact 37 died between the 50s and 90s. Though auto racing is much safer today, accidents still happen, and death remains a very real possibility.
In most sports, a lapse in judgement, a brief loss of mental focus, or a simple mistake rarely carries a great deal of weight. At the worst, an athlete will miss out on scoring a goal, or perhaps in rare circumstances even cause themselves or their team to lose a tournament. In auto racing, a lapse in focus spanning just a fraction of a second can lead to a potentially career-ending crash. At 186 mph / 300 kph, the room for error is extraordinarily narrow and the penalty for making a mistake can be extreme. It is vital for F1 drivers to be in peak physical condition so that they can focus on the driving rather than on merely withstanding the g-forces and heat...
More at link
4 Reasons Auto Racing Is a “Real” Sport and Racing Drivers Are Athletes
If you don’t think it takes skill to keep it on the track and avoid other obstacles at those speeds, outmaneuver is other drivers, you are fooling yourself. Ones skill level makes the difference between a win or not, just as a quarterbacks does.
Nobody said it doesn't require "skill". We're saying it's not a "sport".
Hell, cooking, playing the violin, speaking a foreign language, designing a building, etc all require skill but they're not "sports". And I've maneuvered my own car out of some dicey near-collisions, but it was never a "sport".
Do you suppose the drivers will kneel? Will there be political posturing by them or their crews? Is this the last US sport to remain untainted politically or socially?
I personally haven't watched NASCAR in many years but may tune in today when I get home.
The losers who can't drive a real race car like F1 were there.
MAGA. We're Driving the WORLD loser cars in NASCAR!
