What Is It Good For?

NASCAR. It is hard to imagine how it ever became so popular. After having met some genuine and very serious fans (my boyfriend is a race-a-holic), one really starts to grasp the whole culture craze that surrounds the sport.

Sport.

This is always where I start to have problems with the concept of Nascar. The Merriam-Webster defines a sport as "(1): physical activity engaged in for pleasure (2): a particular activity (as an athletic game) so engaged in". Racing is an activity which involves driving, ie, no physical exertion other than the effort it takes to turn a steering wheel left for 3 hours. What surprises me even more is that racing is stereotypically considered masculine. Rugby is masculine. Hockey is masculine. Driving a fast car is what men do when they are making up for something... like a *cough*cough* insecurity about a *cough*cough* certain body part. Besides, what kind of a pansy man drives (which, may I remind you, is something most of us do everyday because we are too lazy to walk) as a sport? "But racing is very stressful because it is at high speeds" is one defence of the activity. Well, I get stressed at school. "You could crash your car"... and so could I. "But racing requires knowledge and skill".

Knowledge and Skill.

Once again, I find myself questioning racing's logic. It is a fact that racing does not require knowledge OR skill to any great extent. Racing requires MONEY. If you have money, you can buy the good parts car parts and you can pay for the best team of racing engineers to make you car go the fastest. Therefore, racing requires funding. Racing requires a big coompany like Nextel or The Home Depot or Panago Pizza to paste their huge advertisements all over the racetrack, all over your car, all over YOU... and that is what's really sad. Not only are the drivers essentially talentless, but they are a** kissing, corporate puppets who only want to get rich and entertain the (paying) redneck masses.

Entertain.

How can speeding around in circles for 3 hours be considered entertainment? Jeff Gordon passes Dale Jr. in the last lap to take the victory. What a rush. Am I missing something...? Maybe I just find it really hard to watch a 3-hour long advertisement. Or maybe it is my environmental background that causes my severe dislike for Nascar. Needless to say, large, high-performance engines running at top speeds for such a long duration of time causes A LOT of pollution, and not only in terms of CO2 emissions. The energy required to make the car parts, light the stadiums, even broadcast the show, is huge. Racing also creates an enormous amount of waste. Crashing a car is basically throwing it away. Even race fans in the grandstands produce a collosal amount of garbage in the form of hamburger wrappers and plastic beer cups. Rednecks aren't really well-know for being, erm, ecologically aware.

So I say: NASCAR. What is it good for? Absolutely nothing!