NASCAR Racing

by greywolf

NASCAR is a sport that started in the Southern part of America in the 1940s. It all started when different men souped up their street legal vehicals to outrun the cops because of illegal moonshine running. These men would then find time to race on the famous Daytona Beach in Daytona, FL. There wasn’t as much money in racing then as there was in the moonshine business, so these men continued to out race the cops and engage in this illegal activity, but they got the thrill of going fast all the while. 
There came a time when these races became famous, and a lot of people paid ticket prices to see these different men race at the famous beach. It was a thrill for them. Watching cars go around the “track”,part beach, part asphalt. A man named Bill France saw the potential in turning this racing event into a big, major American sport. Thus in 1948 he and several other men came together and created the National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing, NASCAR. 
It’s now the highest television rated and highest attended Motorsport in North America. It’s second only to the NFL in overall television ratings, and the number one spectator sport in North America. The Indianapolis 500, one of the most famous races on earth, doesn’t attract as many television viewers as the Coke 600. The Coke 600 is NASCAR’s longest race, being 600 miles in length, and is considered “just another race”, so it’s something that it out rates a race as big as that. (They run on the same day). Besides the over 250,000 that pack for the Indy 500, NASCAR holds the highest attendance in the United States for sporting events. In fact, NASCAR holds 17 of the top 20 attended sporting events each year.
There has been a bad economy in the world as of late, and sadly NASCAR hasn’t escaped the damage that can cause. Because of that many fans haven’t shown up at the track, and although it’s still the number one spectator sport based on large crowds, it’s losing some strength that it never struggled with in the 90s. The 90s were the best years for NASCAR, as the crowds couldn’t be contained and the television ratings were going through the roof. As time has moved from the 60s and 70s, NASCAR slowly progressed from strictly stock cars to strictly race cars. The cars in the 90s, although falling away from stock cars, still had a lot in common to the actual cars driven on the streets. But the 90s had other great strengths that made them great…while falling a lot in the 2000s.