Is Indy Car as cheesy as it looks!?

[bdcardinal]

Originally Posted By: Touring5
I think a huge factor in this is the cost of equipment and loss of sponsors. Go back a ways and you had lots of tobacco sponsorship of teams and series - then it was banned and all that money dried up.


I wish the tobacco sponsorship would come back. Growing up watching racing of all types I literally knew every tobacco company and never started smoking.

 

[JustinH]

Well if Nascar is airing on Fox Sport 1 and NBC Sports Network, those are now classified as premium sports channels for my dish provider.

Also for the local cable provider.

The el cheapo package does not have any sports channels.

The middle package has ESPN and all the ESPN owned channels.

The premium $$$ package gets Fox Sports channels, and NBC Sports.

I can't even watch the local team Dallas Stars play hockey without going to a premium $$$ package with DirecTV.

Same deal with Longhorn football.

Ten years ago I would make a habit out of making a crock pot dinner, then falling asleep on the couch watching NASCAR.

Now my life is too busy to even look at a television, especially on a sunday.

 

[Garak]

Originally Posted By: SumpChump
Maybe it's time for WRC to come to America, we have lots of geographical variety which could make it interesting.

I don't watch a lot of WRC, but I would think you're quite right about the geography.

bdcardinal: I agree with the tobacco sponsorship thing. Ferrari still is sponsored by Philip Morris, though they're not allowed to say much of anything about it. And I blame my own country for really starting the destruction of tobacco sponsorship.

 

[dailydriver]

Originally Posted By: SumpChump
Maybe it's time for WRC to come to America, we have lots of geographical variety which could make it interesting.


True, and I would LOVE THAT, but the problem is the logistics involved with getting 'locals' to cooperate and agree with/put up with some road closures, and inconveniences.
More importantly than even the above, the liability insurance costs for a WRC round would be astronomical (IF even available for ANY cost) in this tort crazy country.

This is supposedly why SCCA dropped it's backing/sanctioning of national Pro Rally rounds back in 2004, and they were on a MUCH MUCH smaller scale than a full blown WRC round would have to be (and YES, I do know that there was a WRC round in Olympia, Washington back in 1986, but things were somewhat different then).

 

[Patman]

Indycar was great when it was the era of Mario, Emmo, and Bobby Rahal. It was exciting to watch with hot heads like Paul Tracy crashing into people too. But since those days, I have stopped watching. When Indycar first came to Toronto in 1986 I went, and my father and I went back a few times over the years but the last race we attended was in the 90s when Jeff Krosnoff died at the track. (a marshall was also killed in that crash)

 

[danthaman1980]

To me, watching someone else race can only be interesting if the racetrack is interesting.
Drag racing? Yawn.
Going around in circles/ovals? Yawn.
Road course? OH YEAH!

I don't care if it's Indy Car, NASCAR, SCCA, or whatever. As long as it's a road course.

 

[SwampSurvivor]

Originally Posted By: danthaman1980
To me, watching someone else race can only be interesting if the racetrack is interesting.
Drag racing? Yawn.
Going around in circles/ovals? Yawn.
Road course? OH YEAH!

I don't care if it's Indy Car, NASCAR, SCCA, or whatever. As long as it's a road course.


Is NASCAR about racing any more? It seems to just be fabricated drama and fabricated wrecks.

 

[grampi]

Indy car racing is joke now days compared to the days when guys like A.J. Foyt, Parnelli Jones, the Andretti's, the Unser's, etc, were all racing...THOSE were the glory days...I probably wouldn't recognize anyone's name who races Indy cars these days...

 

[IndyIan]

Right now, I think Indy is probably the most exciting racing series. Spec(ish) cars may not be cool, but they do promote close racing and everyone has a chance at winning.
The close racing in SMASHCAR is impressive, but then you see an Indy race like at Fontana this year and it was actually nerve-racking watching them race like that for lap after lap. The cars themselves are so much more agile than NASCAR which makes close racing all the more impressive.
I also like that indy is a bit gritty with the lower budget teams, it seems more grassroots I guess.
F1 is good when atleast 3 teams have a good car, and I do like the cars the best of any series, but lately the races are between 2 guys and there is usually just 1 pass if any that decides the race.