Why Is NASCAR Dominant?
[ June 4th, 2008 ] By: Charles Smith Posted in » Questions, Ramblings
When there are such awesome things like Rally in the world, why is NASCAR the dominant motorsport in the United States? That is a question I’ve been asking myself, along with “What made NASCAR become so popular in the first place?”.
I’ve found a few points that make it so popular:
It is easy to spectate. Hillclimbs and Rally Races are hard to spectate. You have to go out to the middle of nowhere and bring a seat and your own beverages. NASCAR lets you come to a stadium where you can park, buy tickets and sit in a stadium style seat where you can easily order beverages or pick them up.
Many times people will go to a NASCAR race to support their favorite driver (and have a nice day out). They get to watch their favorite driver go around every corner and crash if that happens. Stage races only allow a spectator at glimpses of the driver throughout the stages. So spectators may be disappointed with the amount of time they see their favorite driver(s).
Alcohol. So many of the NASCAR sponsors are alcohol related. Even a whole series was named after a shit beer. Alcohol is the biggest reason I think NASCAR is watched. It is an excuse to sit around, drink beer, eat some food and hang out with some buddies. This makes me wonder why many Rally races in the US remain alcohol free. I get the safety part of it, but at least push for alcohol in some areas if it will make the sport more popular. The rallies in Europe have some trouble with alcohol, but then again, look at how popular they are.
Marketing. NASCAR was almost tailor built for advertising and sponsorships. This resulted in a positive feedback loop between the sponsors and NASCAR. Promote NASCAR and your stuff gets promoted too. So the marketing teams of many many companies worked with NASCAR to help promote NASCAR and themselves. Really, it is an excellent business strategy where if NASCAR got huge, any sponsor would also get a ton more coverage. I am quite sure this is what Rally America is hoping to do with Rally. It has achieved a ton of coverage thanks to the X-Games, and Rally America is hugely responsible for that.
I’ve got some more ideas kicking around in my head, but most of them are infants. I’ll post some more about why NASCAR is so popular later.
But now I would like to hear what you think about what makes NASCAR the dominant race league in the US.
June 4th, 2008 at 11:54 pm
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June 5th, 2008 at 6:21 am
The thing that confuses me is that NASCAR is far more popular here than things like F1, which is more exciting to watch, just as easy to spectate, and has pretty significant marketing around it. I guess the difference is that NASCAR is American, while F1 races are rarely in America. :(
But Rally definitely doesn’t lend itself well to spectators. It is more of an engineer’s sport, and a driver’s sport when you get down to it. :)
June 5th, 2008 at 6:54 pm
Countries fall all over themselves to get an F1 race, and FIA is more than happy to get all sorts of money for making some tiny southeast asian country bend to their every whim. The US is too proud to put up with FIA’s bullshit, so they don’t. Plus, they don’t need F1, they’ve got NASCAR. I know it’s circular, but we’ve already had self-perpetuating systems involved in this.
June 6th, 2008 at 6:36 pm
yeah, i try to put my annoyance with some of the stuff the FIA does aside, but it’s hard sometimes :(
June 8th, 2008 at 12:18 pm
Nazi sex orgies?
June 16th, 2008 at 10:28 pm
[…] well the review of it at least. As Charles pointed out the other day, Rally isn’t the most spectator friendly sport, since the race occurs over so much distance, and takes up a lot of time due to everyone racing […]
July 16th, 2008 at 5:25 pm
NASCAR also has a legacy. Thats why it is so popular. A lot of the early NASCAR drivers were bootleggers from the south that knew nothing better then racing once prohibition was over. I think Nascar should run more road courses. Its very exciting to see stock cars going around more then just 2 turns. Also, paddle shifters haven’t made it to NASCAR yet!
July 16th, 2008 at 6:46 pm
Hah yea. A lot hasnt made it to nascar yet. Imagine the power they would make if they were fuel injected…woof. I think that would end up killing lots of people.
NASCAR at the glen is much better than the ovals.