NASCAR, sport or not a sport

[Tom Fairchild]

Do you think that NASCAR should or should not be considered a sport? (I hope I did this polling thing right...)

[Karl]

WOOHOO! I am the first person to disagree! I feel so special yet so unpopular at the same time .

[Mike Soukup]

I don't like NASCAR much, I prefer the speed, power, and handling of the cars in the CART series. I'll get to your question in a bit, don't worry. Most people don't know how physically fit the drivers in the CART series have to be. Their heart rate averages 160 bpm for the duration of the 2-3 hour race (the drivers are constantly straining, and because of the g forces, it's harder for the heart to pump blood to the body's extremities), they sweat off a few pounds during the race, and they have to be strong enough to counteract the Gs and have enough stamina to do so for the whole race. So auto racing at the highest level requires the driver to be physically fit and of course to be quick mentally.

But is auto racing a sport? I can't find a good definition of 'sport' so I get to make up my own answer I'd say that auto racing is a sport. It has a physical and mental element and requires a lot of talent.

Mike

[mike o'leary]

i think it is a sport because i think that 'sport' is meant to be defined broadly. while i may not find nascar racing particularly exciting (on the other hand...anyone see the fast and the furious...) it does nonetheless fall into the wide spectrum of sports

[Tom Fairchild]

As a matter of fact, I have seen Fast and Furious. I was particularly fond of the tricked out station wagon they had up on screen for about three seconds at the beginning of Race Wars (I drive a '86 Grande Marqui Station Wagon with a 5L V8 engine. You wouldn't believe how much fun it is to beat Mustangs off the line in it!). Personally I find it devastating that the only big block V8 in the whole movie (aka, the only real drag race car) gets destroyed.

~Tom~, who's babbled on for WAY too long about a movie that didn't deserve this much talk (although was still really cool)

[mike o'leary]

yay for 5L V8 station wagon engines...before mine got totalled it too beat many mustangs, beemers, and all those cars while racing

before i totalled it my big plan was to put a new transmission in, which would of course have meant re-building the engine and actually pretty much the whole car. but it woulda been worth it to make it standard.

also the other really cool thing about it was its size: it was bigger then almost all suv's, the only downside to that was that parking it was a pain, when i could even find a big enough spot. usually i ended up squeezing it between 2 compact cars with maybe 3 or 4 inches between me and them

[David Kelly]

Isn't it good to see Little E to win the first race back to Daytona after Big E died? It's actually the 11th anniversery (to the day) of Dale Earnhardt's first Winston Cup points win at Daytona. So thats pretty cool.

[Carolyn Duncan]

It's hard to say yes or no. Nascar/Winston Cup Racing is definately a competitive event. As far as sport, though the driver's body is pushed to the limit through dehydration and mental ability through boredom, there is no action that suggests the movement of the body, under it's own power, is what produces a win. That seems a bit confusing (it's late and I just got off a 30 hour train ride and unloaded all of my belongings from my truck). Very simply, it's not the person acting with the rest of the team to win on a human level. It's not the same as something like soccer or hockey. It belongs in a different catergory, out there with ping-pong, billiards, and darts (great games, very competitive, not sports.) BTW, I know about parking woes Mike. I used to drive a '77 Cadillac Sedan DeVille. We called it "The Banana Boat." It was yellow and huge! Usually took 2 parking spaces to park it because it was so long; there was never much room on the sides either.
C~ya,
Carolyn

[mike o'leary]

i never minded...actually thought it was rather amusing. people have great reactions when youre doing a 3 or 5 point turn to park and theyre blocked off...

[Tom Fairchild]

Parking was fun but capacity is better. So far my record for number of people in my '86 station wagon is 14, including myself. It was me and 13 french and italian felmale exchange students. Needless to say, I'm pretty proud.

[mike o'leary]

why did you have 13 female french and italian foreign exchange students in your car?

[Jessica Boucher]

Mikes just jealous

On 237 I know its a tradition to see how many kids you can fit into a small place, such as the bathroom on a charter bus. Last time we tried, i think it was 11 kids.

[Tom Fairchild]

You forgot FEMALE, Mike. And the reason behind it is because only me and my friend were the people there that could drive, and he drives an '80s Accord. The exchange students (apparently have a different way of doing things in Europe) see the two cars, and promptly stick 7 in the Accord and 14 in the station wagon. The thought of maybe calling up another friend of mine who could drive just never crossed their mind. Needless to say, I'll never turn down an oppertunity to be surrounded by women.

~Tom~, who's glad he didn't hit anything with that many people in the car.

[Tom Fairchild]

Oh and Jessica? My hats off to you guys! Sounds like a fun tradition to have. 11 people in one of those tiny bathrooms is rather impressive.

~Tom~

[mike o'leary]

You forgot FEMALE, Mike.

no i didnt