jvils

Athletes are trained for different things. Accomplished power lifters don't make good endurance runners and vice versa. Both are athletes. Race car drivers more akin to endurance athletes, AND the must maintain an extreme level of focus for hours on end. e.g. if an endurance runner loses focus for a moment, he stumbles, maybe wipes out. A driver can hit a wall and kill himself. Further, Rusty Wallace and Jeff Gordon loose 8 - 10lbs every race while enduring cabin temps about 140. I sure it's similar for Trans-am, GT, etc. The pos/neg/lateral G's that F1 and Cart drivers endure is more than many other "athletes" could take for corner after corner and hour after hour. Just MHO.

Saab9-3

Whoever says that racecar drivers aren't athletes says that out of ignorance. Drivers like schumey are in peak physical condition. I bet f1 drivers have body fat percentages akin to olympic track stars.

Optikal

[QUOTE]Originally posted by ElTianti
[B]Do a track day, all of your question will be answered.

utahskyliner34

yes its a sport, no they're not athletes but that isnt a bad thing. just because someone is an athlete doesnt make them better than a non-athlete, it all depends on the field of interest.i'd rather be a race car driver than a "athlete".

AVXs2000

IMO, yes race car drivers are athletes. anyone ever have experiene of driving a race car or go kart knows

it will requires a lot body strength and especially upper body strength to well control what they are

driving.

most great professional race car drivers (F1, Rally, GT...) will spend hours for work out each day to keep

their good shape and for their job, they also have their own trainners and people who give advise on

their meal plan fellow them everywhere and work with them everyday, just like other professional

athletes.

NoMoreWRX

Any game where you can easily DIE at any moment is a sport.
Anyone who plays that game for several hours is an athlete.

Of course this does remove most popular "sports" from the classification. But hey, risking death brings it up a level doesn't it

-Ed

red97gsr

This is reminding me of the movie Kingpin when he goes to the tournament and sees all the big, fat, beer guzzling, smoking bowlers. "I'm in awe to be in the presence of such great athletes"

kster

According to this USA Today article, driving a race car is the second hardest thing to do in all of sports:

http://www.usatoday.com/sports/ten-hardest-splash.htm

BBY2KS2K

actually I brought that up and yes, he does consider it a sport. I argued that baseball players spend a lot of time just sitting or standing around. I think baseball is a sport, but no more than auto racing.

Thanks kster, I will have to show my friend that article, Iam sure he will get a kick out of it!

DarioManfretti

Definitely "YES" and "YES".