What skills are involved in NASCAR?

I try not to make ignorant comments about sports I know nothing about but NASCAR, no matter what people say I can't see what makes it erm in any way good.

Is there more to it than pressing the throttle peddle to the floor and turning left twice a lap for 3 hours?

What skills does a NASCAR driver need? Do they need the same level of fitness as say an F1 driver? And is there any technology to the series beyond big engines?

 

ask here

http://community.nascar.com/go/forum/viewboard

 

Try playing IndyCars on the Ps2 or any of the NASCAR games.

If you think you're good at F1, then it will come as a suprise how hard it is to race at speed on the 'easy' ovals.

I mean, how hard can t be!?

okay, okay, so it's only computer games and not the real thing, but if there is any realism to these games than racing round in circles is a lot harder than you think!

 

Did you watch it at the weekend on Motor's TV? It's surprising good to watch, even if I don't fully understand it yet.

From what I understand, most of the race doesn’t mean anything, you are just looking after your car, tyres etc waiting for the last 20 laps. You can almost guarantee that there will be a safety car in the last few laps. From what I can see they do this to make sure they get a close finish. The last few laps are a free for all, and it’s a mad house.

At Daytona, it’s a very high speed oval, you need to be “pushed” along by another car. It requires quite a bit of teamwork, and strategy to make sure you are in place for the last few laps. How much driver skill is involve, I don’t know. At smaller tracks it’s a lot different, i.e. they need to brake for “corners”

Next race on Motor’s TV is this Saturday, I’ll be watching again because I enjoyed the race last time.

 

​Not crashing into the fire truck is a valuable skill.

[video=youtube;4RijhM_POPc]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4RijhM_POPc[/video]

 

I'm not sure what skills Pamela Anderson and Team Coordinator Markus Fux will bring to her new team goingDownForce1.

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NASCAR:

It's really all about remaining in contention, whilst preserving that little bit extra for a final, hard push at the end. The way points are awarded is meant to spice things up but in reality, it makes little or no difference. Personally, I find it dull to watch because the challenge to drivers is so repetitive that it's virtually constant. But that is not to say that it's easy! - Remaining in contention against world class drivers is a major challenge regardless of the type of racing.

However, I'll mention one more thing which has the effect of dulling my interest - and something perhaps more controversial: the frequency of Safety Cars can have the effect of making NASCAR a bit of a lottery*.

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*SC's can of course affect all forms of track racing, including F1; but is much less likely to change the outcome.