I say not a sport, just a car race, engines are working, driver's just driving. Other than that you have 90 guys trying to change tires while 30 dudes are trying to pump gas. 25,000 chicks smelling of White Rain are pounding beer with their men in the stands and you might get 500 Stewart fans calling Gordon fans sissies.
Also, no way the drivers are athletes.
NASCAR is a competition with race cars to finish first. By any dictionary definition of the word "sport", NASCAR is a sport. If it isn't a sport, what would you call it?
Drivers may not be on the level of athleticism as traditional sports players, but when you can wheel a 3400 lb stock car around a track for 4 hours for 500 miles, and walk away from a crash with multiple G's of force uninjured, let me know.
I enjoy the atmosphere around it. Minus the part where Gordon fans are called sissies. Because I'm a Gordon fan.
Class of 2010.
it's a car race. If you go by your definition, then playing video game racing in an arcade or living room is also sport.
a competion of video cars to see who finishes first is defined by you as sport.
I call someone who drives 175 mph 2 foot from another car doing the same thing, then crashes with G-force, a retard... borderline Kelen Winslow poppin wheelies in a mall parking lot to impress high school chicks.
I used to make quite a bit of fun of NASCAR & fully admit that. About 8 years ago in my early early twenties, my family went on a camping trip in Dover, DE to meet with my Mom's best friend and go to a race. I just went so I could hit Rehoboth Beach & travel down the coast to Ocean City, MD (plus make a venture to Assateague Island). Definitely gained a respect for it.
While there are certainly some interesting characters, the same can be said for plenty of other sports & I absolutely think of NASCAR as a sport. A lot goes into these cars/adjustments/driving skill & physical fitness. Not all drivers are in absurdly great shape but you'd be amazed by some of them.
I enjoy it & continue going to Dover for a race once a year. To each their own though & not everyone will or should agree!
The drivers are definitely athletes. I normally hate sports science on the four letter, but the one about the physics affecting drivers when they make turns is insane.
Sport is defined as an activity involving physical exertion and skill in which an individual or team competes against another or others. So, by definition, NASCAR is a sport. You're physically exerting yourself by driving a car as fast as possible for hours in a hot race car dressed up in a firesuit (sounds a lot harder when explained), competing against real opponents. Competing against 42 other computerized cars on a video game is not real competition, and obviously is not true physical exertion, so no, my definition would not consider video game racing as an actual sport.
Class of 2010.
Not elite athletes but they're athletes. I think of NASCAR simply as a competition rather than an athletic event though.
I can't say much about the drivers, but I can definitely say the pit crew is made of athletes. I saw a show one time with a guy training to be a tire guy on a NASCAR pit crew. He was a former NFL player, and he was struggling because it was much more physical than he thought it'd be.
I hate NASCAR but there are definitely athletes involved with it.
John, just curious....have you ever been to a race? From your remarks it sure doesn't sound like it.
So much of NASCAR is dependent on the vehicles, that you can hardly consider it a sport. It is a competition that requires skill but not athletic ability. It doesn't depend on the physical stature of the drivers like any sport does. For example soccer, football, basketball, baseball, tennis, swimming and other sports all require the participant to use their body and harness their athletic ability to compete. It takes skill to drive a car that fast, but then again it also takes skill to play poker and I wouldn't consider that a sport either. NASCAR drivers are not athletes in that their competition is so dependable on their very vehicles and not how fit the drivers are.
So wait...is the Spelling Bee not a sport?! ESPN broadcasts it?!
Of course im messing around, but in all seriousness, I say they are athletes, its tough work from what i hear as far as how much training they do.
Fitness is the wrong metric William. Miguel Cabrerra and Prince Fielder might have formed the pudgiest 3-4 combo in baseball history but they won't have problems excelling at their sport. Also, your notion that SO much depends on the car is flawed. First, rules are in place that most engines\cars\aero packages don't differ so much from one to the other. Now your bigger teams are ultimately going to have the best equipment so from a durability standpoint, some drivers have the edge because their cars are better. I will use Hendrick Motorsports as the example. Everyone ultimately has the same equipment to work with, the engine Jimmy Johnson has is the same as the one Jeff Gordon and Dale JR have yet two of those guys are multiple champions while one of them hasn't really won as much as his popularity might indicate.
Obviously athletic ability has little to do with it as the fastest NASCAR driver in a foot race is not necessarily the fastest driver on the course but when you are going 135 miles per hour in a .5 mile oval with 42 other guys competing for the same space, your decision making is more complex than that of ANY other sport. A miscalculation at 135 is devastating for a lot of people, not just you. If Tom Brady reads a coverage wrong and throws a ball into coverage, no biggy. If Dale JR reads an opening wrong, as many as 20 other drivers are at risk. I won't compare what NFLers to do what NASCAR drivers do but there isn't a single athlete in the four major sports or international soccer that could get behind the wheel and compete. It is harder on the participants than any other sport out there because of the speed at which their game is played and the far reaching effects one drivers actions have on the rest of the field.
Sport? Maybe....but there isn't anyone in the world that can do what these guys do.
4-6 seconds from point A to point B and when you get to point B, be pissed off
Coming from a father of a child with special needs....Anyone who uses the R word in response to anything is a douchebag!
I know of only two things that are infinite, space and human stupidity.....and I'm not sure about space". Albert Einstein.
Sorry to offend IndyBuck87. Retard is an IQ level below 70. Do you want me to say cognitively disabled? Same difference.
No I haven't been to a race.
I definitely consider myself a race fan, and even though I look at NASCAR as an abomination compared to other types of racing, I do consider any sort of high speed endurance race an athletic endeavor.
IndyCar drivers are taking the turns at the Indy 500 at 220 mph, which induces up to 4G's on their bodies. NASCARs only go about 190, but with the higher banking, they get a fair amount of G-forces also. Drivers have been known to lose 5-10 pounds of water weight during a race. Most drivers have to keep themselves in pretty good shape to withstand those forces for 2-4 hours.
Sport, at its simplest definition, is simply something that's done for fun. Some sports require more athletic prowess than others, but if it's competitive and fun, then it's a sport. Endurance racing definitely requires athletic ability.