sitting in a car turning a wheel just doesn't strike me as a sport.

if so, where's my medal for getting to work on time?

The fastest car isn't valid in NASCAR in particular, although it certainly doesn't hurt. They also don't make the cars all perfectly equal, they just have specifications they must work within. IROC races have identically set up cars.

I think the main reason many don't consider it a sport is because they know very little about it, or just don't like it. And no one will ever convince me that golf is any more of a sport. It just gets a free pass because it is popular among wealthy people, and NASCAR fans generally fall on the opposite end of the economic spectrum.

And hitting a little white ball with a club is?

Do you drive 180 mph non-stop to work with no air conditioning, windows up in a firesuit?

so if I play basketball in a firesuit and in a hot gym, it's a more of a sport than in air conditioning?

the environment in which it is done has no impact on the fact that steering a wheel is not a sport.


golf relies your physical skill/ability, not a mechanical device.

I think of golf as more of a game than a sport as well, but it's closer than car racing.

when an arguement like this starts, it's such a slippery slope. because anything can be seen as physical skill or ability.

so, what makes car racing a sport and a car racing video game not a sport?

It would certainly require more physical endurance.

There's also the brake & accelerator pedal, car setup and pit strategies.

I've already addressed this.

No it's not, they belong in the same category.

Agreed.

You could die.

I don't have anything against NASCAR at all, I think the amount of concentration it takes to do that is probably ridiculous. If you screw up once, you're dead... but there's no way you can get on somebody for saying racing is just turning a steering wheel, then make the "just hitting a ball with a club" crack. The best athletes in the world can play golf everyday and still not be very good at it.

I was responding to his ludicrous statement with an equally ludicrous one.

and putting a ball through a hoop/goal/over a white line is?


a sport involves physical ability/talent.

and while every task on earth involves physical ability (eating, shitting, fucking, getting into an internet arguement about car racing), driving a car just doesn't strike me as a sport.

(no matter how hot the inside of the car is :rolleyes: )

Alright, it's obvious I need to attack this from a different direction. My point is, to someone who doesn't know anything about racing it may seem to be just turning a steering wheel. Someone who doesn't know anything about golf may just see it as hitting a little white ball with a club. Someone who doesn't know anything about baseball may just see it as a bunch of guys standing around.

It's a hell of a lot more than just "driving a car".

I guess the bottom line is I don't think golf is a sport, but I don't click on to the golf threads and proclaim that. But everytime someone starts a NASCAR thread, here it comes like clockwork, and it's usually someone who doesn't know anything about it.

Found a nice little blog about this:

Sports Law Blog

Is NASCAR a sport?

Last weekend, at the invitation of one of my clients, I went to the Miami-Homestead Speedway to take in the final NASCAR race of the season. Now, I have done a lot of work for this client, who is heavily involved in auto racing, but I am not exactly a NASCAR fan. In fact, in the past I have been extremely skeptical of NASCAR, often arguing with friends and colleagues that it is not really a "sport."

Well, after the race, I am still not a NASCAR "fan," but my opinion of whether it is a sport has definitely changed.

I have scoured the web for a definition of "sport" and the following is the best one I found (it comes from the Government of British Columbia's Ministry of Economic Development web page of all places):

"Sport is a physical activity involving large muscle groups, requiring strategic methods, physical training and mental preparation and whose outcome is determined, within a rules framework, by skill, not chance. Sport occurs in an organized, structured and competitive environment where a winner is declared."

Using this definition, NASCAR is undoubtedly a sport. Large muscle groups are certainly used and strategy is a bigger part of racing than you might think (the decision to pit or stay on the track can often be the difference between finishing first or 15th). Obviously, physical training and mental preparation are a huge part of auto racing, the outcome is determined within a rules framework (see, for example, the yellow caution flag which helped Ryan Newman beat Greg Biffle in the Busch race last weekend), and I don't think anyone can argue that NASCAR drivers aren't skilled at what they do.

Regardless of the definition (and I am very interested to see what others people come up with), I think it is very tough to make out the case that NASCAR is not a sport. Now, bowling on the other hand . . .

By the way, even though I still am not a NASCAR fan, I was overly impressed by the marketing aspect. Where else do you have fans shelling out $30 for a T-shirt that has Home Depot, Lowe's or DuPont written all over it?

again, slippery slope when it comes to semantics.

what qualifies as a "large muscle group"? fingers? eyes? heart? brain?

strategic methods? getting to work on time takes strategic methods.

outcome determined by skill where winner is declared? a video game would qualify as a sport, then.

agree to disagree.

I apologize for attacking your interest. I hate it when ass clowns do that to my royals/jayhawks/poop threads

I don't know where you get your info...but Dale is certainly not done racing, if he is, somebody needs to inform him...

easy, with these drivers:

Jeff Gordon
kyle Busch
Junior
Jimmie Johnson
Matt Kenseth
and even Tony Stewart

:D

Like you said yourself, it's semantics. I didn't see it as an "attack", but more as an opinion that differs from mine. It just seems as a fan I have to constantly defend it. It gets tiresome.

And if you didn't say it, someone else would have. :)