Time for an Engage Sport Mode Confessional
ESM likes NASCAR. There, I’ve said it. Done. Out in the open for everyone to see.
To be honest I’ve liked it for the best part of a decade. An American once asked me “dude, you’re from Europe, the birthplace of motorsport and Formula 1, how the hell can you like NASCAR?”. The answer is simple: NASCAR is entertaining.
NASCAR involves 200mph cars, with thundering V8 engines, racing inches away from each other. It, almost, actively encourages contact between cars. Officials will throw a yellow flag for no apparent reason, to close the racing back up and make it more fun to watch. As a sport NASCAR cares about “putting on a show” and making sure fans get value for money.
Some might argue they only turn left, that the cars are low-tech and that the races last far too long. But show me when something like this last happened at the end of a Grand Prix:
If you’ve seen Talladega Nights then it goes to show that life does often imitate art.
I also have to admit that, when he raced in F1, I happened to be a fan of Juan Pablo Montoya. Yes everyone took the piss out of him for being overweight, but to me he was one of the most entertaining drivers to grace the grid for a long time. If you didn’t know, he now actually races in NASCAR; where the cars are so heavy body mass doesn’t really matter. This was how he did at Sunday’s Daytona 500:
In many ways, there’s nothing better to start something off than a huge raging fireball. Welcome to American Week; seven (or so) days of themed posts about our friends across the Atlantic.
