Why do some Nascar fans hate Formula 1 as much as they do?

Question

I mean, F1 doesn't play "follow the leader", overtaking happens all the time, but some times the action is simply missed by the cameras (the problem with some national TV coverages), plus the car doesn't drive itself. How can you program into the car's ECU a whole race, plus the strategies, plus overtaking, plus changes in line, before the race? I mean, that's impossible. The only electronic driver aid that is in use in F1 is traction control. And that doesn't drive the car.
And how does an oval course test a driver's ability? You just turn left 800 times a race, plus the track is banked and there aren't strong lateral G-forces. In F1, lateral forces can go up to 5 G's and upon braking, over 6 G's. Stock cars' steel brakes hardly bring it to a stop, while a F1 car can stop from 200 mph in 200 meters.
Plus Nascar is afraid of racing in a little bit of rain. In F1, the races are postponed or cancelled because of weather only if there is a monsoon.

Plus there are some tracks, like Spa-Francorchamps, 7km/4.7 miles long, that have all sorts of gradients and difficult turns; just think: the Eau Rouge, a quick left-and-right uphill 160mph chicane, that only the bravehearted can take with the foot down. Blanchimont, one of the quickest turns in F1; you lose it there... you are out.

Plus in F1, a 2.4 liter V8 engine develops, ON PUMP FUEL, around 750bhp.Stock car engines are 2-3 times as big and produce half the horsepower on other types of fuels.
And the downforce generated by a F1 car's aero package is so big, you can drive it at 125mph on the ceiling of a tunnel.

I have been watching F1 for almost 10 years now and I am telling you there is no motorsport that is more addicting and exciting in the world. I tried watching ChampCar and Nascar, but I was quite unable to watch it properly because I found it boring.

To any Nascar fan that answers this question: F1's strongpoint against your oval dizziness is racing in the rain. It's unpredictable, predisposed to crashes and all the time you see strange names in strange places.

Goldy... I tried watching highlights on some sports channels and it bored me to death.

I'm also from RO...

Answer 1

Formula 1 involves too much thinking for NASCAR fans....

Billy Bob only wants to watch the pretty colors go around and around....

Answer 2

Because they are simple-minded, just like the races they watch.

Positions never changed? The best drivers in the world will let you pass that easily? Please compare the width of average F1 track and Nascar circuit. If you think you can pass people that easily, go ahead and try.

Of course Nascar has position change. Because the numbers of cars actuallt filled up 1/5 of the circuit. When you have that many cars piled up, your chances of "passing people" is a lot greater, isn't it?

Don't give me that F1 has follow the lead stuff. I dare you to count how many time does does that happen in F1 for the past 5 years. It will be less than one Nascar race.

I don't hate Nascar, but their fans are just some of the dumbest, like the American carryball fans.... Well, at least Nascar is more interesting than the American carryball....

Answer 3

F1 has also been called EURO racing.For the most part this is not as popular in America,even the NASCAR road coarses are some of the low draws,because od the street and/or road coarses.Even being from the heart of NASCAR coubtry I do watch some of these events,just like I watch sprint cars,drag races, champ car, rolex road races.I ta a chance that they will be pretty good.But for the average man NASCAR is more of an easy reach for him.
Then when you look at the sales stats for cars sold you see that the CHEVYS,FORDS,ect are a symbol to the persons favorite driver.So the average Joe relates to the cars that run in NASCAR more than the F1 vehicles.The overall racing is not watched as much as a persons favorite driver and or car make.
I still have my favorite F1 driver was JACKIE STEWART.
I will still watch racing and look thru an open mind that it is racing.

Answer 4

I don't hate it. I enjoy any type of racing. The problem I have is finding where races will be aired. Some times the only way to watch it is tape it overnight.

One reason other fans do not care for open wheel cars are because they like the close bumping action that NASCAR cars can provide. These are the type of fans that are more interested in the wreck than non-touching passing that truly makes a driver a driver.

Answer 5

I can't remember a Nascar race that started only 6 cars. I seem to remember that's how many cars started at Indy in 2005. A chicane would've fixed the tire problem. Instead more than half the field went home (including all of the top named drivers), after they took the warm up lap. The poor spectators had to watch because they couldn't get their money back. I was luckier I could change the channel.

Answer 6

I actually enjoy the NASCAR races, it's a totally different form of racing - one where you don't have to worry about pit strategies, qualifying fuel load and you get to see loads of different drivers winning!

It's a good way to relax, I find myself getting wound up about F1 because of all that goes on in a race (and because my team have been doing rubbish for years now!). In NASCAR you can just sit back and enjoy cars going side by side for lap after lap, it is exciting, just in a different way to F1. It's more fun than F1, I remember last season in the Busch Series the race was stopped for snow and the Pit crews and crowd were having a massive snowball fight - you wouldn't ever see that in F1!

Unfortunately, I can't watch Nextel Cup races live as I refuse to pay for the channel it's on, but I watch as many of the Busch Series as I can - supporting Stacy Compton as he shares my family's surname - on Motors TV with a few beers.

Answer 7

Because it's fun. We really don't hate it as much as we think we do. In fact, most Americans have never even seen F1 and think the Indy 500, the one race, is F1. Seriously, we just don't get it. Virtually all Americans drive, and we drive regular cars, so NASCAR is closer to home and easier to understand. We never drive open wheeled race cars, so for a lot of people here, F1 just seems odd and the cars seem too fragile.

Americans do love spectator sports, and really, they only showed F1 here for about ten years on cable tv and then it went to an even more premium pay channel, thanks to Bernie. But when I did see it, I had to get up here at 0430 to watch it live, because it was only showed then and only showed once. Well I haven't seen it since it went to the premium pay channel, so I know the pureblood NASCAR fans haven't seen it in a while.

It's the rough and tough image. The redneck thing. After a week on the freeways commuting to work and back home, NASCAR fans on the weekends like to pretend they are all rough and tough rednecks, bumping and grinding it out there on the tracks with the racers. It's fun. We are at home cooking steaks and drinking beers and having a blast yelling in our favorite driver accents at each other and the TV. We're bumping and grinding alright, but that's pushing and elbowing each other out of the way to get to the bean dip and hamburgers. But hey, we're kings for the weekend, drinking our Budweiser, the "king" of beers.

So while we're rehydrating and recouping from a week's driving, our race car is in "the garage" getting worked on by our pit crew, "the boys". Monday rolls around and we are back to the freeway cup. The boys are off to school. We'll have to stop on the way to work for a "splash and go", but we'll make it there to take the checkered flag.

Yehaw! And we're gonna do it again next weekend!

Answer 8

Formula 1 is the most high-tec sport in the world, as cars go, these are the most advanced anywhere. The thing that lets it down is the way the wan##rs in the FIA keep slowing it down. We should be allowed 3 litre Turbos, slicks and bigger wings! I find F1 these days isn't F1 at all. The big teams should have broken free from the FIA by now. Motor racing in the states is like watching racing from the 80's, but it can be more exciting and dangerous, as long as it isn't a oval track!

Answer 9

There are too many differents tipe of thinking. I believe every person watch what he likes the most. I like more F1 than Nascar because Nascar is not a mediatic sport in Romania and I can't watch it. I'm more familiar with F1.

Answer 10

Formula One is dullsville to me. But that's just my opinion. I love NASCAR because to be honest, it's different from what the rest of the world calls racing. There's more to Nextel Cup and Busch Series than what you see during a race. And I like NHRA drag racing and monster truck competition too. And FYI...NASCAR race cars are only called stock cars...they are purpose-built for racing, both aerodynamically and horsepower-wise. And rarely is a race TOTALLY cancelled for rain...they 'red-flag' the cars then resume the race once the downpour is over!! Yes they race in drizzle and light rain but not in downpours.

You don't have to like NASCAR. Whatever floats your boat.

BTW Formula One is not promoted as much here as it is in other countries!

Answer 11

Personally, I am american like F1 a little better than nascar but each series is organized around its own philosophy, and you don't seem to have any concept of that. F1 is set up to allow for innovation and for each team to build and design their own cars within reason. This always leads to astounding costs, Toyota is rumored to have spent 1.2 billion USD on their F1 efforts over the past 2 years. Nascar is set up with cost savings, reliability and most importantly close racing in mind. The teams are not allowed to design any of their own parts, they must use only nascar approved parts on their cars. If they wanted the cars to stop better then could just use different pads, or different sized brakes but the rules don't allow it. Consequently, the budgets of nascar teams run around $100M USD for 30!!! races. They don't race in the rain because it would add far more costs to develope, test and buy rain treaded tires. I wish nascar went ahead and spent the money on rain tires, the drivers could handle it because most of them come from open wheel dirt tracks backgrounds (like USAC Silver Crown, Midgets, World of Outlaws - which I find more exciting than nascar and formula 1 combined). F1 fans would clearly enjoy those types of racing far more than nascar nextel cup and busch series.
Also, most of the nascar fans I have ever met don't really have any strong feelings about F1 because they don't follow it. The races are only televised in the US on limited cable channels, thanks to bernie ecclestone.
Reagrding driving skill: to say that it is easy to go in circles shows you have no concept of the physics of driving at all. The only difference between the ovals and F1 road courses is that on the oval the driver has to control the car at the limit the entire time. In fact nascar races are so much longer than F1 races (f1 = max 175 miles, nascar = 300-600 miles) the drivers will be driving at the limits far longer and for a longer portion of the race.
Technical qualification of cars: You are completely WRONG about F1 car control aids the controversy over traction control in f1 proved nothing except that due to the very open formula and the level of techonolgy in the cars it is impossible for the FIA to prove whether F1 drivers are using aids or not. So the fia decided they might as well just let it go since we can't stop it. F1 cars do not run on pump gas they run on 100 octane race gas provided by multiple mannufacturers, in fact the elf fuel company admitted that they had provided richer mixtures to different teams in years past. Nascar racers run on 95 octane leaded gas (leaded gas is illegal in the US) so the series are similar on gas. Horsepower: true hp figures are very closely guarded secrets in both series however the rumors are that nascar nextel cup cars cars make 800hp. As an FYI, Nascar engines are all 5.7L carbeurated V8 engines that rev up to about 9000 rpm. Since they are carburated there is no way to regulate max revs, help with traction control or set up the fuel mapping strategies etc that they have in f1.
Passing: check your f1 history, from the time senna died until the beginning of last season 99% of all f1 passes took place in the pits. Nascar easily has more passes in one lap than an entire f1 race. Until f1 decides to use wider tracks designed with multiple race lines this will remain the same.
Your judgements on nascar fans are sweeping generalities that only show your ignorance and neglect the fact that the eurotrash which goes to f1 races are the trash that destroys soccer stadiums etc. 99% of f1 fans don't even know what a mass dampener is even though most normal road cars have them.

BTW, I hope beyond hopes that alonso beats shumacher for the championship but I think it will be very close.