Do your friends equate "race fan" with "NASCAR fan?"

[pressdog]

Mine do, and it's making me insane. We victims of racing cultural cleansing need a homeland:

Indianapolis Eyes Creating Non-NASCAR Refugee Camp (http://pressdog.typepad.com/dogblog/2007/02/indianapolis_ma.html)

[harvick#1]

ignore them, tell them your a race car fan. I like any form of racing, but everyone still thinks I'm only a stupid Nascar fan and excusing me racing is not a sport :s

[Erki]

Well, it's not only in America. Due to the lack of words for racing in Estonian, if I tell someone that I like cars going real fast, they assume I'm a rallying fan, which I undoubtedly am, amongst other things. The reason for this is, the word for racing is somewhat is used very widely here, but the rallying word is used very widely, even fore supermarket campaigns...

And yes, it can be irritating, but at one point you don't really care anyway. :)

[Opinion8d]

the best way to avoid explaining indy car racing is to praise their favorite ball team because they will then bore you for ten minutes and forget that they wanted to ask you something about nascar

[indycool]

Some do, some don't...I live in Indy, so it's undoubtedly different here than other places. When you go to the corner gas station and can pick up a free NASCAR schedule and buy a NASCAR lighter........

[DRC]

Most definitely. In fact, I've just defaulted to say "I love racing but not NASCAR" right up front so they at least know. If they're still interested, I'll talk about open wheel and sports cars with them. Rallying, too.

[sezix]

NASCAR is good for what it is, but I wouldn't could it racing at times when you see what the drivers do it does remind me at times of a whole pack of peas flying around circulating a tilted clinider for four hours with crashes every 10 laps...

But each to their own.

[ZzZzZz]

I've recently come to the realization that over the past year or so, here in the Bay Area, when I mention I'm into racing, they bring up the San Jose Grand Prix. It *has* gotten a lot of press. I take that as a really good sign that other forms of racing have a chance of mainstream acceptance.

A couple weeks ago, a girl exclaimed me "please tell me it's Indy cars and not NASCAR!" before going on about how cool the SJGP is. Well, it's a step a least (she didn't recognize "Champ Car").

I actually have a lot of friends locally who are into racing. Mostly F1, ALMS and MotoGP. My two friends who are big NASCAR fans are equally into F1.

[racer69]

Similiar thing happens in Australia, if you say you like motor racing, all they think you like is V8Supercars........

[Hoss Ghoul]

I've recently come to the realization that over the past year or so, here in the Bay Area, when I mention I'm into racing, they bring up the San Jose Grand Prix. It *has* gotten a lot of press. I take that as a really good sign that other forms of racing have a chance of mainstream acceptance.

A couple weeks ago, a girl exclaimed me "please tell me it's Indy cars and not NASCAR!" before going on about how cool the SJGP is. Well, it's a step a least (she didn't recognize "Champ Car").

I actually have a lot of friends locally who are into racing. Mostly F1, ALMS and MotoGP. My two friends who are big NASCAR fans are equally into F1.

The SJPG does get alot of press when it's here, far more the the IRL at Sears Point. KRON broadcasts from the race on raceday, and even my East Bay newspaper the CCTimes has an article or two before and after the race(same for IRL, normal for -any- NASCAR week).

This area in general seems to have a little more apreciation and knowledge of racing beyond the world of NASCAR(which nevertheless is the only series that can put 100K+ at Sears Point).

Sports car racing is fairly popular, despite the demise of the ALMS at Sears Point, the NHRA draws very well(same weekend as SJPG), etc.

[beachbum]

In the Northeast US, if you ask someone if they are a race fan, they might ask which horse you like at the local track. For many auto racing doesn't even exist. A quote from Jayskis, that follows NASCAR

"It was difficult to look at 200,000 fans packed into Daytona Speedway and not imagine that auto racing has become one of America's favorite sports. According to a recent Gallup poll, however, auto racing isn't very close. The pollsters asked Americans to name their favorite sport. Football was the easy winner with more than 43% of the voting. Basketball was second with 12% and baseball followed with 11%. Auto racing landed fourth with just 4%. The poll results didn't mean that only 4% of Americans follow auto racing, only that 4% found it to be their favorite sport"

Open wheel in any form is less than a blip.

[ZzZzZz]

Hoss, we still have ALMS at Laguna.

Beach, I've seen (old) statistics that show auto racing (as a whole) to be the most attended sport in this country.

I was thinking about the news of sinking attendance at Fontana and the general drop in NASCAR numbers. It's pretty obvious that you can't pry away a loyal NASCAR fan from their favorite sport, but who are these people who are leaving? Why are they disaffected? Are they open/willing to step up to a more exciting form of motorsports?

[beachbum]

Beach, I've seen (old) statistics that show auto racing (as a whole) to be the most attended sport in this country.

I was thinking about the news of sinking attendance at Fontana and the general drop in NASCAR numbers.


I suspect it is the most attended sport when you add in all of the local racing and all of the different types of motorsports. As long as it has wheels and an engine, someone will race it. Does lawnmower racing qualify as motorsports?

NASCAR is So-Cal has always had trouble getting attendence. A bit odd considering the car culture, but many people just aren't into US sedans or whatever they claim to be. The TV numbers dropping off many be a function of the crappy coverage. Last year at some races about 1/3 of the race was commercials. I don't care to watch hours of commecials to have them interrupted for a bit of racing. It is a great way to kill the golden goose.

While I am not a big NASCAR fan, I do watch. But sometimes I switch away in commercials and find something more interesting. I can always see the highlights in one of the dozens of highlight shows.

[BenRoethig]

The split has driven away most of the fans from open wheel. For the most part NASCAR is synonymous with race fan in the United States.

[luvracin]

I don't have any friends.