Is NASCAR a sport?

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nascar is not a sport. anyone can learn to drive a car in a circle. it requires no athletic ability and is the prime example that america is going downhill quickly. why dont the drivers learn a real sport that involves more than sitting down for four hours sweating? they can't that's why. they were too bad at any other sports to play them, so tried driving a car...something 90% of the american public can do.

I really, really want to punch you in the face.

[billybob_81067]

I really, really want to punch you in the face.

Tab... you may have been a dick towards me in that other thread... but I have to agree with you here.

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Tab... you may have been a dick towards me in that other thread... but I have to agree with you here.

What other thread?

Come on...I'm nice to everyone.

[grEnAlEins]

I really, really want to punch you in the face.

Taken from CNN.com (http://www.cnn.com/2005/EDUCATION/11...car/index.html and http://www.cnn.com/CNN/Programs/driven/)

Olvey found that on an oval track like NASCAR's, drivers sustained heart rates 80 to 85 percent of their maximum, similar to the heart rate of a marathoner.

Olvey then joined forces with Dr. Patrick Jacobs, an exercise physiologist at Florida International University in Miami. The two set out to measure a driver's oxygen consumption. What they found was that drivers used the same amount of oxygen and energy as a long-distance swimmer or runner.

Dr. Robert Cantu, a neurosurgeon at Emerson Hospital in Concord, Massachusetts, and an expert on motorsports, agrees that race car drivers are athletes, but says they don't need the speed or strength of other sports.

During races, drivers are subjected to extreme temperatures -- over 100 degrees in the car and up to 170 degrees near the floorboards -- and despite the help of some air cooling systems, temperature is still a menace to the level of concentration drivers must maintain during a race. Olvey stresses the importance of being physically fit as a way to combat that threat, which can have serious consequences on the track.

That is awfully hot!

While the heat is trying to break a driver's concentration, lateral G-forces are trying to throw them out of the car. For example, on turns drivers experience G-forces similar to those of a space shuttle on liftoff -- in their cars.

Holy Moses!

"You gotta have tremendous stamina and strength to be able to get in a car and go 200 miles an hour for four hours [in] very hot, difficult conditions where you're cramped in, and be able to move that car, and the G-force and upper body strength ... you gotta be a very good athlete," says Stark. "And you're reflexes have to be quick, you have to be able to see things, so it takes a tremendous amount of ability and skill, I think, to be a driver."

Before I'd driven out of pit road, my body was measuring a temperature of 101 degrees, a fever.

In conclusion, spwz99 is 100% correct. They are fat, ugly, out of shape rednecks. Anyone can do this.

Well spwz99, try to put up with a body temp of over 100+deg, in a 115+ deg. environment while experiencing the same G force as an astronaut at lift-off while precisely controling a car for FOUR+ hours BACK TO BACK, no breaks, TD dancing, cheerleader halftime dance, timeouts, etc. If you screw up you get hurt bad, maybe die. Do you wanna try it?

I would say it is a sport. Even if it is not in your eyes, you must recognize the difficulty, and need to be in peak condition, physically and mentally. These drivers are TOUGH!

[b e n]

I can sit in a sauna and get hot, Is it a sport? This is the main defence of all the NASCAR is a sport people. And baseball is a sport not a game I think of NASCAR in a different catagory, yes its hard and takes talent, is it a sport no.

[kosmo]

Whoever is responsible for that whole nascar drivers experience g forces on the level of an astronaut during lift-off should be shot. Once in each knee, a couple in the stomach, and a few times in the crotch just for good measure.

Astronauts experience G forces and temperature extremes that would put nascar drivers to shame. Are they athletes? No. Even during the "space race" they werent athletes. So neither are nascar drivers. Measure the heart rate of someone on a rollercoaster, it will go up. Oh, they must be an athlete.

[mag_lover05]

taking left turns, and shifting down, then up once.....if thats a sport, then opening beer should be one to.

[quik]

Whoever is responsible for that whole nascar drivers experience g forces on the level of an astronaut during lift-off should be shot. Once in each knee, a couple in the stomach, and a few times in the crotch just for good measure.

Astronauts experience G forces and temperature extremes that would put nascar drivers to shame. Are they athletes? No. Even during the "space race" they werent athletes. So neither are nascar drivers. Measure the heart rate of someone on a rollercoaster, it will go up. Oh, they must be an athlete.

How old are you, like 15 or 16? I suggest that you should back up what you say with facts, like the other guy did. Because without facts, you look like a huge idiot.

Personally, I believe that Nascar is a sport, as is any sanctioned racing.

[kosmo]

What am I, your freakin teacher? Go look the crap up yourself. If youre stupid enough to believe that nascar drivers experience g forces similar to a shuttle takeoff, thats not my fault.

[billybob_81067]

What am I, your freakin teacher? Go look the crap up yourself. If youre stupid enough to believe that nascar drivers experience g forces similar to a shuttle takeoff, thats not my fault.

If you're stupid enough to believe that nascar drivers aren't athletes; and that anyone including yourself could do the same thing that they do, then you sir, are an idiot.

[kosmo]

I never said everyone could do what they do. I said they werent athletes. Because theyre not. If you think nascar drivers are athletes, then chess players would be too, if they were playing in a sauna on a plane traveling at a high rate of speed.

[Lohman446]

I never said everyone could do what they do. I said they werent athletes. Because theyre not. If you think nascar drivers are athletes, then chess players would be too, if they were playing in a sauna on a plane traveling at a high rate of speed.

Define athlete... under the new "commercialism" theory if you do any physical activity you become an athlete...

[tropical_fishy]

I never said everyone could do what they do. I said they werent athletes. Because theyre not. If you think nascar drivers are athletes, then chess players would be too, if they were playing in a sauna on a plane traveling at a high rate of speed.

You put it so eloquently.

Not everyone can fix a computer. Does that make it a sport? Just because someone has a special talent at doing something, that does not automatically mean they're an athlete.

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I can sit in a sauna and get hot, Is it a sport?

I'm going to assume you're kidding - just because no body could be that stupid.

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I never said everyone could do what they do. I said they werent athletes. Because theyre not. If you think nascar drivers are athletes, then chess players would be too, if they were playing in a sauna on a plane traveling at a high rate of speed.

Yeah, because chess players have to worry about other competitors traveling at 200MPH inches from their bumpers