Since getting into karting earlier this year, I never watched any form of motorsport. I found it boring so I have never been interested. However, now that I’m learning more about karting, I’m begining to understand what is typically going on-on the track. So now I’m watching everything I can find, and I was curious to see whats your favorite?
What’s your favorite?
0 voters
I can’t watch NASCAR since they’ve introduced stage racing and play-offs. It all seems to convoluted and fake to me at this point.
I’ve followed F1 religiously since about 2006. I read all the news, watch all the contract talks, listen to all the podcasts, follow the subreddits, and watch every session from practice to race whenever I can.
I was into IndyCar/CART a bit too when I was young but never that dedicated to it, but the last several years I’ve been really paying attention and trying to catch every race now that I have some helmets/friends in the field.
My first exposure to racing and what gave me the bug initially was dirt open-wheel stuff. I was at the local dirt oval when I was just a couple months old and went every Sunday for years. So I’ve got a soft spot for dirt midgets and sprints too, which I’ve gotten back into quite a bit this past year through the free recaps and coverage on YouTube.
It really surprises me when I work with some karters who have zero interest or knowledge of any racing outside of the tiny bubble of races they are participating in. It’s a mysterious phenomenon to me.
So I’ll turn it on you Dean, and ask, what made you so interested in taking the plunge, spending the money, and learning about the sport when you previously had no interest in motorsport?
Nothing on a regular basis. Once in a while (every few years) I’ll visit a NASCAR race, but that’s about it. Sometimes I’ll throw on a drifting stream in the background, or catch the Indy 500 if I remember that it’s on.
Now rewind back to the early 90’s before I started racing… I watched everything I could. NASCAR was hard to come by, but I followed everything from F1, F3, formula Renault, rallying, rallycross, Indycar, Paris-Dakar, karting (of course), MotoGP, BTCC, DTM and even the Rachau hillclimb…
I try to watch the 30 min summary of all the F1 races. That’s a good length. I also enjoy just seeing what YouTube offers up and watching that. There is a lot of nuttiness out there. Take, for example, Rockford Speedway and their not-serious motorsport events. I enjoy watching these, a lot.
I pretty much watch any race I can, NASCAR, IndyCar, and F1 are the main ones but also GT World Challenge, IMSA, and MX5 Cup.
The coolest part about F1 for me that most racing series don’t offer is the engineering aspect of the cars. The only downside with this is that it can sometimes provide some pretty predictable races, at least in the hybrid era. This year we finally have a strong battle between two teams, and hopefully with the new regulations of 2022 we can get Ferrari and McLaren or other teams involved in the fight.
I find the IndyCar races the most entertaining to watch for me personally and my favorite series to watch. There’s so many talented drivers and each race you have absolutely no idea who’s going to come out on top and one day the driver can qualify 1st for one race and then 15th for the next.
Love watching NASCAR too, agree with TJ though that the stages make a little bit fake. I know that the stages help with more competitive racing, but it kind of makes it seem pointless to create a lead in the first or second stage because you know it with disappear. My biggest complaint about NASCAR is their playoff system, a driver can literally not win a race all season long and still win the championship, which has happened in the NASCAR truck series. Denny Hamlin in the cup series is first in the regular season standings with ZERO wins. I feel like if you want the best driver to win, you just need to have the season end on a points system like IndyCar or F1, because racing is too chaotic and unpredictable to have playoffs.
NASCAR, F1, Indy, Moto GP
NASCAR - Convenient. It has close competition. It has been 14 years since someone has won 4 in a row. This year they are up to 6 road races. It is good racing if you can get past the WWF of it
F1 - Top notch tech. I llike the hybrid area because they have made it relevant to the car manufacturers. Can be boring… a lot. Really good this year. I can rewind pit stops multiple times.
Indy - Has recovered a lot in the last years. Some good racing. Enjoy watching Colton Herta develop into future star.
Moto GP - Best racing on the planet. It is crazy that V. Rossi is still out there. He needs to retire. Eagerly watching to see if Marc Marques can return to former levels after last years season ending race
It not to say I had zero interest in motorsport, just zero interest in professional motorsport. I grew up outside Sears Point Raceway in Sonoma, CA. I grew up drag racing (1/4 mile) in imports (Honda, Toyota, Mazda). The big thing back then was “Beat the Heat.” You could drag race a California Highway Patrol (CHP) Officer in the 1/4 mile at Sears Point. If you won, the CHP Officer would sign off any fix it tickets (whether they were actually fixed or not). A program I’m sure no longer exists in this overly P.C. world of ours.
Then the first Fast & Furious movie came out right when everyone I knew was getting out of import racing. Once it became mainstream, it lost its appeal as EVERYONE started doing it. Alot of friends of mine had advisor roles in that first movie, and some even had their cars featured in the movie. But thats another story how that all played out.
Shortly thereafter, I was in law enforcement for almost 8 years and fell in love with the high speed pursuit courses. Back then it was called EVOC- Emergency Vehicle Operations Course. I became an instructor so alot of my juvenile “experience” complimented my career aspirations at the time. But when I left law enforcement, started having kids, etc. I lost touch for a while.
So when I discovered karting earlier this year, and as I started learning more about racing and the tactics involved; I guess you could say that I started paying more attention to professional motorsports. I had some of the basics already. It was like all my old passions got rekindled, and I got very-very interested as now I could understand it and follow it better. Which I can thank karting for giving me that inside look at racing/ racecraft in general.
I was always into speed, just not into professional motorsports if that makes sense.
I’m just starting to watch NASCAR, Indy Car, and a little F-1. So far I like Indy Car the best, but that is subject to change as I begin watching more F-1. (But on the surface, F-1 seems very conservative; aka boring) Just my first impressions, not saying I’m right.
Its an unothordox way of getting into motorsport, and probably too much information. But you asked, so what they hey. 
I have always liked motorsports. In my younger days it was only oval racing. Watched NASCAR, and attended DIRT modifieds that are very popular in the northeast. I also raced R/C and again that was oval only. Looking for a challenge in R/C we took up road course racing, 4wheel drive sedans was the rage at the time based on the DTM types of cars . It was a love hate thing, it was a challenge but I wasn’t that good at it. At the same time I started to watch more road course types of racing. Currently, I will usually watch F1 lights out to checkered flag and will watch other racing when I have time. Generally I find NASCAR races to long but will still watch occasionally. I still enjoy dirt oval, sprint cars in particular thanks to MavTV.
No, good stuff, glad to read about people’s history and what lead them to the sport.
Nowadays as I’m coaching more and more, I think it’s important to watch the masters at work and see if we can learn anything from their overtaking style or race management or whatever. Almost any form of motorsport has some high-level driving skills that can be learned from.
Started out with NASCAR and drag racing as a kid, my grandad took me out to many of those races. Saw some sprint outlaw insane cars race when I was 6. I started actually following F1 about 3 years ago, I watch all the races, qualifying, podcasts, articles, Reddit things, IG accounts, etc for the last 2 years. (Like TJ) I went to the Indy 500 in 2019, and recently started following Indy as well, especially grosjean as I like him and feel he deserves to fight for wins again. I also follow F3 and USF2000 as I have a couple friends who race in those.
I get to go to my first F1 soon, it’ll be at COTA
I grew up around Motor Sport. My dad raced a formula V at the SCCA Club level when I was young and worked as a scrutineer on his non-driving days. My brother and I got to tag along to many of the Pro races. IMSA, SCCA Pro, CanAm, Daytona GT & Prototype as well as LeMans GT and Prototypes. I have to say, the infield crowd was almost as fun to be around as the racing was to watch. What a wild bunch! My uncles, that started with road racing, ended up on the Drag circuit along with one of my cousins. They did quite well. I have had a few friends over the years running in the dirt. Looks like a blast sliding a vehicle around the corners on the edge of control.
These days I mostly watch F1, as its on pretty regularly. I try to catch some of the bigger races too in the GT and Prototype world. Not so fond of Nascar, but still some good racing to be had. Inches away from one another at near 200 MPH going around a turn. That takes some Juevos.
I watch F1 pretty closely. I’ll catch a bunch of WEC/IMSA races, too, but don’t really follow those series very closely.
It’s hard not to follow Formula 1 nowadays. It dominates the landscape so much. Plus F1 really understand you need a coherent narrative to draw people in. And really it’s all about narrative. It’s why no one follows top level karting, despite it being arguable the best pound for pound.
Indycar, F1, WRC, NASCAR when they are not at an Oval.
Will someone unpack something I’ve noticed about NARCAR in general:
I hear stuff like Xfinity Series and Cup Series. I’ve also noticed sometimes they race on a real track (with multiple turns/ corners) and other times their racing on an oval track.
Does the type of track differ between the different series? I’m setting up my DVR, and I’d like to not record the oval track races if I can avoid them as I find them a bit dull to watch.
Again, I’m new to this racing world. But I can tell I’m already drawn to more of the European style tracks.
cup series is the top level of NASCAR, xfinity is like formula 2 kinda but withe more similar cars. both do ovals and road courses, this year its 1/3 “real” tracks and 2/3 oval-ish tracks.
I’d urge you to try some short track racing in iracing. I didn’t “get” oval at all, thinking it was kinda silly. I was forced into it by the series and had way more fun than expected.
It’s a very different kind of racing and one that I have trouble describing what makes it different. There’s a different flow to it and it’s unlike sprint racing in that everyone doesn’t get very spread out. Also, there’s lots of passing since the laps are short.
The big ovals like are very different from the little ones. The draft is mega on the big banked tracks and you trade places constantly because of this. I only did one race, not my cup of tea.
Short tracks are a hoot though, imo.
NASCAR cup is the top tier of NASCAR and they will race at some dedicated road courses as well as the “roval” which uses about 3/4 of the oval and the infield road course. Xfinity is the next tier below cup, some weekends they run the same track as cup, sometime they run at a track that cup cars do not go to. It might be tough to set up your DVR to only record road races.
While Dom appears to be making reference to iracing, I would agree short track oval racing is different than super speedways. Any track that is a mile or less usually provides more excitement and continuous racing.
I’m sure its like anything, more exposure = more appreciation. I didn’t mean that to come of like it did when I read it over again. I don’t like oval tracks as currently I find them boring to watch. However, I have never run an oval track before, maybe if I did and I understood it better, maybe I’d appreciate it more.
FS1/ FS2 seems to have all the racing stuff in my area. I’ve been watching the NASCAR Truck series (a little). Can’t help but root for Hallie Deegan when my daughter is with me as she herself is discovering racing/ karting for the first time.
F1 will be in Miami this year, I’d love to take my daughter down to watch, but I can’t this year.
I didn’t mean to imply there was anything wrong with that opinion as I shared it myself until I tried oval and was pleasantly surprised. It’s subtly different and really fun to participate in.