Do you consider NASCAR a sport?

[Deleted]

Well yes, its a sport. I define sport as something you perform and can win. Poker is also a sport.

[Silenti]

Is it a sport? Don't know, but I do know for a fact it's just as much of a sport as soccer. Which is to say, it's boring as hell to watch and adored by millions of exceedingly annoying people.

[Eroginous]

Well yes, its a sport. I define sport as something you perform and can win. Poker is also a sport.

By that definition, anything is a sport. Which completely voids the purpose of defining the word 'sport' to begin with. Poker is a game, and games are not always sports, though some are. However, all games have a clear winner or loser. That doesn't make them a sport. A sport is something that requires athletic ability to be proficient in. NASCAR isn't a sport because because athletic ability has zero impact on who wins. A guy who has never exercised stands just as much of a chance to win a NASCAR race as someone who exercises religiously. A guy who's a fat slob stands just as much of a chance at winning as a guy who is in peak physical condition.

Wake boarding and water skiing are sports, requiring athletic ability, but the guy driving the boat is not considered an athlete. Driving a watercraft is not a sport. Yes, it does take skill, but it does not take athletic ability.

[Desh98]

NASCAR is "sports entertainment" Just like the WWE. Enjoyable to watch but not an athletic sport.

[McNeil]

Well yes, its a sport. I define sport as something you perform and can win. Poker is also a sport.

I can do a ''Sit On The Couch'' contest. Does that make it a sport?

[Spritely]

It takes a hell of a lot of arm strength to drive one of those cars. I don't know that i consider it a "sport" sport, but it still takes hard work to drive one.

I'm with the person that said it's a motorsport.

[Bluesftw]

i wouldnt call it a sport. entertainment sure , especialy crashes

[Deleted]

Im not really a fan of NASCAR, its too dumbed down to be called a sport.. oval circuits? pfft! Forumla 1 on the other hand, I consider a sport.

[chrisnumbers]

I found the answer.
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/sport?s=t

[Masqerader]

it is a motor sport.

[Last Starfighter]

Of course it's a sport. You aren't just "driving around in circles". People that look at NASCAR as a hick thing will always try to discredit it because they're so "sophisticated".

---------- Post added 2012-03-21 at 05:04 AM ----------

I can do a ''Sit On The Couch'' contest. Does that make it a sport?

Sitting on the couch isn't performance.

---------- Post added 2012-03-21 at 05:08 AM ----------

NASCAR is "sports entertainment" Just like the WWE. Enjoyable to watch but not an athletic sport.

Golf isn't an athletic sport. And driving those cars as fast as they do, and for the amount of laps that they do requires stamina. Mental and physical. A 3,400-pound stock car doesn’t drive like your SUV, it’s a brute.

At the speeds today’s stock cars attain, a driver is constantly wrestling the machine.

The moments he’s not pushing or pulling against the wheel and working the pedals are brief.

While all that is going on, the G-forces of the cornering speed are pulling a drivers’ head, torso and legs to the right -- the opposite way the rest of him is trying to go.

His ribs and shoulders are jamming against his seat and restraints and that's a feeling like taking a hit from a linebacker every minute for a few hours.

In racing schools where regular people can take a stock car out, most people are sweating and have an elevated heart rate after just a few laps of driving.

A stock car driver must be able to handle these forces and stresses over three to four hours of competition.

Plus, you have to have a sense of fearlessness to drive a car that fast and hard.

[Eroginous]

Yes, driving a stock car requires endurance. So does staying up for 72 hours without sleeping. You're trying to discuss something that takes absolutely zero athleticism or physical training and trying to say it qualifies as a sport. If NASCAR was 50 dudes running around a track for 4 hours, you'd have a point and yes, it would be a sport.

[GG you got me]

Golf isn't an athletic sport.

I always wonder how long it will take in a sports discussion, before someone who fought tooth and nail just to barely graduate high school says something like this. Golf may be one of the most painstakingly boring games on the face of the earth and 50% of the game may constitute the short game and prioritize skill, but this is like suggesting that a kicker or punter on a football team isn't an athlete albeit a shamefully feminine one.

[Dakia]

I don't consider NASCAR to be a sport. Much like I don't consider racing in general to be a sport.

That isn't to say that it isn't competitive or difficult. I just consider racing to be in its own category.

[Skarssen]

And thats why no one knows the fat football players names. If you watch football for the defenders, you're doing it wrong.

Fat guys mostly play offensive line, since their job is to basically prevent the defenders from getting to the quarterback/running back. Defensive linemen are usually in better shape than the offensive line and, with the exception of nose-tackles and some of the 2-gap 4-3 defensive tackles, need to be more mobile.

Unless of course you are referring to that sissy, nancy-boy game most of the world calls "football"

[mittacc]

I'm talking outside practice and what-not. Football players spend time in gyms, doing physical training. Drivers do not. The point is, the football players are not "fat", moreso than just big. I've seen some drivers (if I could think of one's name I'd give it) that are just....fat.

HAH! maybe nascar is a bit fatter than the rest of the racing series, but have you any information about f1 driver's training? what about rally driver's?
even in gokart you need to go to the gym. I've broken ribbs severaltimes.

You usually train your neck, ribbs(?) etc. You need to endure the physical tension of being in a car.

and ofcourse you don't feel a thing if you have power steering and drive at the speed of 110km/h on the highway.
try to go on a real racetack, in a real race car and compete in a real competition and come back and say it isn't physical demanding.
Or you could try a gokart(not rental ones, they have tractor motors and go slow as hell) ask if you can borrow a kz2 or rotax max from a local track and train until you are up with the top. That's where it's physical demanding.

[conscript]

I classify it as a motor sport and don't lump it in with any of the major sports. Honestly though, I just don't give a shit about NASCAR. The media coverage of that terrible sport is 95% Danica Patrick, 5% everything else. How someone who has never won a single race, has never had any real success in the sport, and averages finishing in the mid 20s can get so much coverage is absurd. ESPN literally had a segment that was about Danica's goals in 2012: win and don't crash. Those are the same goals shared by every racer, yet I don't think Brad Kuslowsky(spelling) had that same segment lol. She finished late 20s in the last race she was in, still got more media coverage than the 20+ guys ahead of her combined. She is a media sideshow.

None of the other major sports have that. The NFL has Tebow but Tebow wins or everyone would stop caring. The NBA had Linsanity but everyone only cared because the Knicks were winning. The NHL has Crosby who is a winner. NASCAR is the only sport where 95% of the media time is dominated by someone who has won 0% of the events.

[Jaerin]

That depends on if you make a distinction between a sport and a competition. If you do, then no generally NASCAR would not be considered a sport per se, but it is a competition none the less. If you don't then yes you could call it a sport.

---------- Post added 2012-03-21 at 01:19 PM ----------

I classify it as a motor sport and don't lump it in with any of the major sports. Honestly though, I just don't give a shit about NASCAR. The media coverage of that terrible sport is 95% Danica Patrick, 5% everything else. How someone who has never won a single race, has never had any real success in the sport, and averages finishing in the mid 20s can get so much coverage is absurd. ESPN literally had a segment that was about Danica's goals in 2012: win and don't crash. Those are the same goals shared by every racer, yet I don't think Brad Kuslowsky(spelling) had that same segment lol. She finished late 20s in the last race she was in, still got more media coverage than the 20+ guys ahead of her combined. She is a media sideshow.

Huh...Men's competition and one of the competitors has breasts and a vagina and that's all anyone looks at and talks about...surprised? Seriously?

[mittacc]

i'll leave this video here, it'll explain a bit about what's so difficult and athletic about motorsports
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Tmy0zALh_1g

[Bigbamboozal]

Lol, divide this thread into two groups, those who have driven a 500horse+ sports/supercar, and those who have not.
I used to think nascar was a little bland, left,left, so on, redneck as hell, but really, at 200mph (not kilometers), things get hectic, I bet the majority of ppl on here haven't driven a car that CAN do 200mph, let alone have done so. There are g forces involved. Good reaction times are important, when you drive at 200mph a flat tire could mean certain death. Now take that, and add MANY others doing the same, in a competition, with fans, a coach, teammates, and heavy expectations set on you.
Driving a stock car is NOT like hopping in your honda and cruising down to fatburger.

But a sport? Yes, it is. Lets see here...Uniforms? Check! Competition? Check! Teams? Check! A chance to better yourself and up your game? Check! A winner and loser? Check! Millions in sponsorship and endorsment deals? Check! DOUBLE CHECK!
Can you drink beer watching it? SUPERQUADRUPAL CHECK!
Yup, it's a sport.




And before one of you armchair's tells me I have no frame of reference, yes, actually, I do.
It's a Factory Five GTM, and I built it. And nothing feels quite like the moment you kick the door down at 200mph, let alone compete against others doing the same.
If you are curious here is a vid of one with a bit less power, and a hilarious german fellow, you don't even need to speak german to get the jyst of it http://www.motorvision.de/videos/ccg...many,2566.html