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i would like to know what people's opinions are on american motorsports. specificly why things like drag racing,nascar and other forms of oval track racing became so popular here. i know drifting is rising fast but other than that, road racing(F1, touring car), rally, motogp. none of these are really as big as they are in asia and europe they are all here but still more of an undergroud scene and have been for years, i know each does have there own fallowing here but u dont see F1 shirts, or team subaru hats, or moto gp jackets like u do in other countries or like u see from nascar here. any theories or comments work, it would be cool to see a in depth opinion on this!
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octagon!?! -
it's simple dude the types of racing and types of cars all depends on the land. a lot of american is big oppen, highways, and long over the road trips in big cars to fill the gap and big ingens because we have always had some of the cheapest gas in the world. but in europe and asia where it has always been much more croweded, with old twisty streets they have smaller cars and twisty roads to travel on. so with big cars and roads we get things like nascar, and with old twisty roads and cars built for them they get things like road racing. the differance is even more promenet it motorcycles because they have things incomon with horses. the american western styles horse saddel has a different seating position than the einglesh style so we have big hogs and choppers, and theyhave small tucked in bikes. i know i must have raped the spelling on this whole thing right?Comment
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Here's the basic explanation as to why oval track racing took off in America.
Horse Racing.
Seriously, if you set the wayback machine to the dawn of the automobile, you'll remember it originated as a rich man's plaything. What did rich men play with and race before cars?
Horses.
What sort of racing did people like to go see at fairs and such before the automobile?
Horses.
What's the shape of a horsetrack?
An Oval.
Why an oval?
A fan can see everything that's going on at once.
And hence, oval racing's rise in America.
Sheesh, why is it NO ONE seems to have any recollection of the fact that organized motorsport in this country dates back to the turn of the century?Comment
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I think NASCAR really took off because of the "race on Sunday buy on Monday" thing they had going on where the cars actually racing were the same cars you could go buy at a dealer the next day after the race. I think this really got people into it because they could feel more involved with the sport by owning the same car. Of course, this was back in the day and its not like that anymore. I'm sad to say but nowadays I think its more of a good reason to have a beer and go watch some racecars crash. I dont think the majority of NASCAR fans understand or respect the ammount of tech that goes into the sport.Comment
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Originally posted by Octagon
This is right on. Especially when you get into the wayback machine and remember that alot of the old historic oval tracks were horse tracks first.
Hell, when Henry Ford raced the 999 in that historic race it was at a horse track.Comment
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i wish rallying was more poplular in the states... its too bad nascar is taking up 90% of the T.V. time... we all need to email speed channel and tell them to televise somethin other than nascar most of the time.. geeesh
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Speed channel used to so good a few years ago. How the mighty have fallen... or gotten rich, either way.Comment
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I work in motorsports marketing and work specifically in the road race market. There are a number of factors here.
1)As American we like to have easy access to everything, we are a country that also likes things as easy as possible. Road racing is not this way. Go to a road race and you can rarely ever see the entire track from your seat. So you have to walk around the track to see all areas. This is why oval racing is popular, sit in your seat and watch the race.
Now the IRL used to only run ovals but I will touch on the reasoning it has never gotten big next.
2)Marketing is amazing in NASCAR and not just for the series itself but for the drivers. American take to people, we want to cheer for someone. In the rest of the World that is different, the teams and the car makes have the big fan bases no matter who is driving the cars. Schumacher was not a star at Benneton when he won his first championship. He became a star when he went to Ferrari and that is because of the follwoing (The Tifozi) that they have. If he were to leave the team he would not be the star he is today no matter what team he went to. Now NASCAR spends millions of dollars marketing thier top 15 drivers. Be it toys, T-shirts and all that. That is what the American public loves, that is the reason that ladies 50 years old love Tony Stewart, they dont care for the racing as much as they do the driver.
3)Track access is everything. 85% of the road courses in the USA are at least 60 miles from a big population center. Yet 92% of all the NASCAR ovals are right in the middle of populations areas. This kind of goeas along with #1, as Americans we want ease with everything and traveling to tracks in the middle of nowhere is not easy like driving through town to a oval track. Along with this is hotels, restraunts and all that other crap. That stuff is never big around road race circuits so it does not make it easy for fans to come and stay.
Good example here is Formula D. The events at real tracks are received so much better then the crap parking lot events. But there is not a road race circuit in Chicago, Houston or NJ. So those events took place in bad parking lots or circle tracks.
4) Is the same as #2, MARKETING. NASCAR spends in excess of 5.5 million dollars a year to market it's name. This includes stuff where their name is present on products. Sure a lot of companies pay for the use of the name but NASCAR also spends a lot putting their name on stuff and their drivers names. Anyone remember those aweful Chevy cars that looked like Earnhardt's car. That was not done through the driver. NASCAR went to Chevy and paid to make that happen. NASCAR is strong and when you are strong it is easy to spend big money on marketing. When you are little and struggling to get by it is impossible to spend that money. In the late 80s NASCAR had to pay for their TV time slots. The same as ALMS, Grand Am, Champ Car and the rest do now. But with NASCAR spending so much on marketing the fan base got HUGE and now they are paid to get all theri stuff on TV. This includes Speed, Speed charges everyone but NASCAR for the air time. And the charges are STEEP, like $35,000 for a 30 minute slot in prime time. Hint the reason that FD is not on Speed. Even the SCCA has to pay a little to get World Challenge aired and Speed is the title sponsor of the series. Them being the sponsor only gets the SCCA a cheaper rate.
5) Lastly is the fact that the American public like to see cars they can associate with. All the open wheel and the top classes in the sports car series struggle with this. World Challenge and the lower sports car classes have a bigger fan base because the general public can appreciate them. Now I am not saying a NASCAR car is anything like a real road car but at least it has the same names and a gerneral kind of look.
Speed went to crap when they sold out to Fox. See NASCAR and Fox have a very tight relationship and that being the case NASCAR said you can have all our races for a discounted price if we get "X" amount of air time on Speed. Again, great marketing.Comment
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Motorsports in America
Ok I will awnser why, what and where on these questions:
I am a marketing manager for a major company that supports many forms of racing in regaurds to sponsoship and event support. ( I specialize in the media aspects for our race teams).
#1 : NASCAR and Oval racing in general is popular in the US for a couple of reasons, Americans have a very short attention span and the cars never leave the track, going in circles for hours never lets the action leave the dedicated venue. Also keep in mind all of those cars are sold on dealer floors in the US and are brand driven by the Auto Maunfacturers wich attract other major US sponsors. These create money, not just money to race with but money to brand with. MONEY DRIVES RACING! and I am not talking money to race the cars. This is the same principal in Europe its just driven with F1 and Rally, this is why events held by Champ car in Germany and England on ovals have not done as well as expected.
#2 : TV coverage. This takes quite a bit of time to explane but here it is in a nut shell. We know drift is awsome and the TV coverage stinks. Why is this? Because even if Speep Channel, ESPN, or even a major network wanted to televise drift, it comes back to the all mighty dollar. ( Millions instead of 100's of thousands like the current drift sponsoring companies spend now). WE NEED NON-ENDEMIC COMPANIES IN DRIFT (Coke, RED BULL, FED EX, KELLOGS, WAL MART, ETC,ETC)........Most of the time this becomes the responsibillty of the racing series. When TV deals are put in place the Idea is first, the advertising is second and then the game plan is put together to get it on the air. With out commercials there is no TV, so if you want to see Drift on real TV the current sponsors need to step up and advertise on TV. The best example - They gave day Soap Operas the name because the only companies that would put the money up to produce the shows early on were laundry detergant companies, hens the name Soap Operas.
#3 : My racing opinion: I wish Rally and Road Racing in general could get more main stream time because the racing is just awsome.
CaptainComment
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I took to long to type, almost the same awnser right above me at the same time.....Comment
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I'm really getting sick of this "Americans have short attention spans" crap that's supposedly why people watch ovals.
Try again.
People watch ovals because they want to see EVERYTHING that happens. They don't want to miss a thing because they're paying rapt attention to EVERYTHING in front of them.
And, quite frankly, if any of you candy-asses would actually GO to a short track like Eldora you'd get an idea as to why people have been watching and participating in sprint car racing since the days of Barney Oldfield and the chain driven Blitzen Benz.
It's actually pretty simple.
Drifting at 40-80mph
Drifting at 90 to 160mph.Comment
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I agree with you about short track racing. I grew up racing @Baronna, Lake Perris and Victorville I agree it is some of the best racing by far in the world. I cant figure for the life of me how come World of Outlaws doesnt have a full TV deal?Comment
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ITS ALL ABOUT MONEY!!!!
NASCAR is all about the money, and I am not talking what they pay for the cars. NASCAR atracts Big money from Big companies, and it pays for them in the long run. This is because NASCAR is good for promotion and advertising, quite simple.
old slogan, "win on sunday sell on monday"Comment
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believe it or not; nascar has been keeping an eye on drifting...Comment
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