I got into a huge argument with a friend at the gym this morning. He made the statement "People go to races to see crashes. Without them, the sport would die in a week." I said " hat's the biggest load of crap I've ever heard. It's a myth that's perpetuated by TV, which insists on showing endless replays of crashes -- race fans hate crashes." I asked him when was the last time he went to a big time race. He admitted it had been many years. I said "I go to at least three big time races each year, two of them for all three days of racing, practice, qualifying, and support events. I talk to and watch race fans -- they hate crashes. They come to see good clean racing. Crashes mean caution laps, no racing, mangled cars, maybe injuries. Race fans HATE crashes." Who's right?

 

I watch Hockey to see the fights but can`t stand to see an accident at a race. I don`t think anybody enjoyed watching Zanardi`s

 

I'd rather see good driving, but how else can you explain NASCAR's popularity?

 

I went to a Nascar race a few years back and let me just say a crash is not something you want to see. Yeah, in a way its cool seeing something like that...but then its like, oh sh!t I hope the guy is ok.

A crash is maybe 15 seconds of the entire race. The clean-up process takes 30 minutes to a few hours (which is really really boring). Once this is all done the race starts again. I prefer not to see a crash due to the amount of time it takes to clean everything up. I think its better to watch on TV...knowing everyone is ok (afterwards).

Jaykkub

 

I have two friends that are nuts about NASCAR - they even have a several hundred thousand dollar coach they drive around to some of the races every year.

Glenn & Jan tell me, yea the races have been boring the last few races they've gone to because there are no crashes. That's what they go for but its them and not every NASCAR fan out there - as noted above.

But in F1, a crash, well, the cars usually bend a suspension part which makes them entirely unusable and they retire from the race or the car is demolished into a hundred thousand pieces and is not even identifiable as a 'car'. Not something I want to see.

 

I'm guessin' your buddy is not a race fan. I'm not a football fan and I'd be the first to say that people watch football for the violence. Likely as not, neither one of us know what we're talking about.