Drivers are Not Athletes, and NASCAR is not a Sport
Is NASCAR a sport? Are drivers athletes? This question has been plaguing the United States for quite some time now, and I answer no to both proposed questions.
Don’t get me wrong. Being a NASCAR driver takes a major amount of skill and talent, being able to control a ridiculously fast car with the constant fear of wreckage, but NASCAR is not a sport.
To be an athlete, one must rely solely on their own body to accomplish their goal. For instance, a baseball player uses a bat, obviously not their own body, but how do they use their bat? It is essentially an extension of their arms. The player still must rely purely on his/her physical abilities. Hand-eye coordination to hit the ball and give it a direction, and potentially strength to hit it far.
A fielder uses a glove to cushion the ball, but still, relies completely on themselves, to move to the ball, pick it up and throw it.
Football, basketball, hockey, soccer, golf, none of these sports are different. All athletes use some form of external wear (padding, shoes, sticks, etc.), but the results are caused by the athlete himself (or herself).
Going back to football, a Quarterback can have all the padding in the world, and the most amazing ball or glove, but he still must rely on his own strength and mind to make a throw.
A NASCAR driver does not rely solely on his body. He uses his body to turn and accelerate, but the car is what is the major reason a driver has success. The driver relies on the car’s abilities as much as his own. In no other sport is an athlete so dependent on his gear.
For a basketball player, if he loses a shoe he can still play, albeit not at the same level, but in NASCAR, if a tire gets blown, the driver must get the car fixed before continuing to race. If one car is faster than another, with better tire traction, the driver can do little to prevent the other from winning.
In soccer, if a player is more talented than another, he will win out most of the time. In NASCAR, as much weight is put on the car as the driver himself.
This is all theory, per se.
But, how can we prove this hypothesis? Well, we can look at performance enhancing drugs.
I am not in any way at all supporting the use of PEDs, or cheating, so keep that in mind while reading the following:
Performance enhancers help athletes in all sports, because they change the athlete’s physical abilities, generally making them stronger. In hockey, if you take steroids, you become stronger and dish out bigger hits, but in NASCAR, if a driver takes PEDs, is he really going to be helped?
Sure, he can push the gas pedal harder, or turn the car with more vigor, but is he going to be profoundly affected by the use of steroids?
Simply put, roids make an athlete’s abilities better, but as a NASCAR driver, you rely a lot on the car’s abilities, so steroids are not helpful.
Obviously, NASCAR drivers are incredibly talented and are definitely taking a daily beating (driving a car moving that quickly is not easy), but the races are more events, not sports matches.
AGREE!
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Do performance enhancing drugs solely affect one’s strength? Or can it also improve one’s coordination, or reaction time?
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The PEDs that are generally spoken of are muscle enhancing drugs. HGH helps to bulk people up, steroids help in the same way. If anything, they may decrease reaction time/coordination, because roids put unnatural strength on a human’s natural joints which often trigger long term damage..
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NASCAR does take a certain amount of skill, talent, focus, and mental/physical stamina. There is no doubt it is an exciting event for those participating. But, it is NOT a sport, and they are NOT athletes.
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Although I agree with your position that our usual forms of athleticism do not apply to NASCAR, I disagree with your illustrative example of using steroids. Just as certain steroids can enhance strength and bulk of the more traditional athletes, I am certain there are other drugs that can enhance (or hamper!) the acuity and reflex speeds of NASCAR racers.
So, I think you need to come up with a better example!
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I’m sure there are substances one can use to increase reflexivity etc, but currently the major problem lies within use of steroids an HGH, making the potential reflex steroid irrelevant to this argument.
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You’re totally right, i don’t think it’s a sport at all.
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I totally agree with you.
a)there is nothing even exciting about it. For example, its not like anything unexpected happens. It’s more like, “hey the guy is about to take a left what next another left… yeah i wasn’t expecting that.”
b)It burns no calories and doesn’t even use any major muscle movement. It’s like claiming chess is a sport because you use your brain in extraneous ways.
c)sorry to any racecar fans but NASCAR is not a sport
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The average nascar driver looses 10 pounds per race.
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The basis of your argument is the definition of an athlete being someone who relies totally on their body to accomplish their goal and I believe this to be an incomplete definition of an athlete. It also places all of the emphasis on physical body control which is only a portion of any competition.
Athletes use certainly must control their bodies but must also be able to concentrate at high levels and endure extreme physical conditions. Being an athlete is not just one of these things but all three simultaneously. Not all 3 are necessary at the same time. In most sports their are periods of time where physical control or exertion are the most important aspect while at other times intense concentration are important. Endurance or stamina are necessary in all sports and that recieves no attention in your argument.
Your point about equipment is interesting. You assert that a driver without a car in peak condition (with a blown out tire) is unable to compete. This is true but is the same not true in other sports. A baseball player with a cracked bat can not hit the ball as true or as hard. The same player with a glove that has a few loose stitches may drop a fly ball. Equipment is a part of many sports and if the equipment fails so does the athlete.
In any racing sport, the equipment provides a platform on which the driver competes. The driver uses his hand eye coordination to maneuver his vehicle around other cars and a track at 200 mph avoiding other vehicles and finding the fastest way to get to where he is going. That same driver must control a steering wheel and gas pedal and brake pedal and shifter while reading different gages, communicating with his pit crew about the condition of his vehicle, make decisions on when and where to move all the while fighting the intense heat and g-forces put on his body during the course of the race. Those things require the elements of an athlete that I mentioned above.
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Drivers certainly have to deal with ridiculous conditions, but my argument was more that drivers rely far more on their equipment than other athletes… How much would steroids really help a driver?
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Yes, they do rely more on their equipment relative to other athletes but that is only a portion of what they do to be competitive. I think of the car as a medium for how they choose to compete. Other athletes have their medium and without it they would not be able to compete.
Your claim that PED’s help “all” athletes is something I have a problem with. By saying all athletes when you have already begun to exclude drivers as athletes you are begging the question. You assume that all performance enhancers are something that makes some one incredibly stronger (i.e. Barry Bonds).
In the past baseball players and other athletes were using amphetamines. These drugs helped players perform through pain (something that happens to anyone who exerts their body beyond normal human capacity) and could (for some) improve focus temporarily (like ADHD medication). Decresed pain and increased ability to concentrate in extreme conditions are definetly benificial to any competitor. This isn’t to mention all of the other possibilities but these are two of the most prevalent.
The reason these drugs are called Performance Enhancing Drugs is becuase there is a wide range of drugs that have a wide range of effects. An increase in strength is only one of the desired effects.
Using PED’s as a way to qualify athletes is a bit suspect in itself. We agree that people should not be using these drugs so why should we use it to qualify who is an athlete? Athletes are people who have taken natural gifts and through training have refined those gifts to become the best in their respective sports. It could be reasoned that if a person with average physical abilites took PED’s they may acquire the physical ability to compete at a high level. PED’s eliminate true competition degrade sport so using them as an example introduces a faulty premise.
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An athlete relies on his or her own body. You argue that a baseball player couldn’t play without a bat, but the bat is an extension of his body, as he is controlling every movement the bat makes. In a car, the driver controls the main aspects, but the car does work on its own.
The point about steroids is that they help better an athletes physical condition (whether it be focus, stability, strength, stamina, etc…), and it is being used in the article as a way to show that if driver’s really did rely solely on their bodies, then steroids would have a much more profound impact on their abilities.
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I understand the points you make perfectly well. What I don’t agree with is their application. I grant you that drivers are much more dependent on their equipment to an extent that is far greater than most sports. However, many of the sports you list require equipment as well.
It could be argued that the car is an extension of the driver. He is the one who controls its operation and without him it is a chunk of expensive metal (and fiberglass). A bat could be considered in much the same way. It is a chunk of wood until the batter picks it up and swings it toward the ball. I could continue this exercise with all sorts of sports equipment but that seems unnecessary.
PED’s: Your argument asserts that drivers would not be as profoundly affected by using steroids as other athletes. You assume that strength has little impact on drivers (at least that is what I believe is implied in the above article-tell me if this is inaccurate). However, drivers do require a great deal of strength but not in the same way as a football or baseball player. They must have strong muscles with a high level of stamina. A car moving at 165-200 mph will generate between 6-7 G’s while going around some corners. The driver must maintain his grip on the wheel, position in his seat, head an neck placement for vision, and feet on the pedals. These G forces pull in the opposite direction of the way the driver is trying to move (G-force pulls to right while driver is turning to the left). Drivers don’t need massive muscles to do this but well conditioned and strong core muscles and back muscles. The same goes for their arms necks and legs. They may not need to take steroids to get massive muscles but they could use them to rebuild and recover after races where energy and muscle have been depleted. Even modest gains could allow a driver an advantage. The advantage would come from increased muscle stamina. Stronger muscles can hang on longer. At the end of a race a driver who is in better shape can spend more energy focusing on decision making and making the detailed small movements which may allow him to win the race. The ability to turn the wheel or push the pedal with more vigor are not the key gains made but rather the absence of muscle fatigue allowing better mental processes to occur.
What do you think about my definition of an athlete? I think that is the core issue here. Also, how do you define a sport?
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Your definition of athlete is certainly accurate, but I think it could be more specific. I mean, a chess player has a natural talent and has refined it through practice, and depending on what you call a sport, a chess player may be considered an athlete.
A sport is an event in which athletes compete, so yes, I definitely agree that the main issue is the definition of an athlete.
I understand that being a driver for NASCAR takes a great amount of talent and practice, but it seems that in every other sport the athlete relies completely on his own abilities, whereas in NASCAR a car with a subpar engine can mess up a race for a driver. In no other sport does equipment have such a profound effect on the ‘athlete’.
Therefore, I think that while NASCAR drivers need to be skilled and extremely talented, they rely too much on their equipment to be called athletes.
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Kyle,
essentially the real people who are responsible for the success of a driver is his pit crew (and those who made the car), its hard to read your comments because the comparison of a driver to a soccer player, football player, basketball player, etc is absurd. of course it takes massive talent to control a car at high speeds but that does make it a sport not does it make the driver an athlete. The driver has NO power over how effecient the car is, his job is to make sure he does not crash it using hand eye coordination. Essentially a nascar driver uses the same skills that video gamers do. There is no way that nascar drivers are athletes or that nascar is a sport. You can be the most out of shape human being on the planet but as long as you have good hand eye coordination and can fit in the seat, you can be a nascar driver.
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NASCAR Driver – Jimmie Johnson is AP’s top male ATHLETE
http://sports.espn.go.com/rpm/nascar/cup/news/story?id=4761210
Interesting perspective by all.
Motorsports is a team sport and very few individuals can master the skill, endurance and competitiveness (balls) it takes to muscle that machine into a corner at 200 MPH+, inside of a 200 degree cockpit, wearing a heavy fire suit, side by side with other cars for 3+ hours at a time without a break. Then do this for 36 weeks in a year.
Obviously motorsports are not for everybody, but quite honestly to me Baseball is a real yawner. Football is macho, but are the the players going on stike? Basketball is good cardio, but don’t they only play for less than an hour with lots of breaks? Soccer is the most industrial, but even those guys take a lot of breaks.
Try it yourself sometime – go rent a shifter Kart or do some moto cross. It’s a lot different than watching TV.
PS: You can be out of shape on the football field too. You just won’t win any championships.
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To be honest I’ve softened my position against NASCAR as of late. However, no other sport relies upon equipment as much as NASCAR does, that’s what I’m pointing out here. I realize that drivers go through an immense amount of physical torment during a race, and that their hand-eye coordination needs to be top notch, but could a driver even compete with an assembly line car?
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So, one one else or nothing can help a real athlete. Is Joe Montana that good playing for Cleveland? He should be according to your theory. Does a corked bat make for a better hitter? Not according to you. Does a perfect game make you are better first baseman?
Does a faster car make you a better driver? I don’t think so. It makes you a winner, thats all.
Forget that a driver must maneuver a 3,600 pound car, straining to steer the wheel around curves, debris and other drivers.
Never mind the G-forces that result from the banking turns at 180-200mph causing intense pressure on the driver’s torsos.
Disregard the lack of oxygen in the cockpit mixed with carbon monoxide fumes which can cause confusion and disorientation for the driver during the race.
NASCAR is the free-fall. One that lasts for 500 miles instead of a mere 9500 feet with no safety chute to soften the blow. Even the slightest mistake could prove fatal in this sport. A driver must always be aware of his car and it’s surroundings. The sheer discipline and mental strength are untouchable.
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I’m not sure of the relevance of the Montana point or the perfect game point, if you could explain I’d be happy to elaborate on my position.
In terms of the corked bat, no, it does not make a hitter better. It makes the hitter SEEM better by enhancing his abilities.
To all of your points about drivers: I agree that NASCAR drivers are extremely talented, and that drivers are physical specimens to be able to maneuver cars with such dexterity. In fact, I have even softened my position against drivers since I wrote this article. But what I am saying is that no other sport relies so heavily on equipment. A NASCAR driver with a Toyota Corolla would never win a race, no matter how talented the driver, since his lack of EQUIPMENT would give him a major disadvantage.
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What about sailing? Sailing is a sport where the ‘athlete’ controls the main aspects of the boat, but I would say that the boat does a lot of the work. Sailing is an olympic sport, so would you argue with the people who select the sports for the biggest sporting event in the world?
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The Olympics are called the “Olympic Games”. EVENTS take place at the Olympics, some happen to be sports. Not everything in the Olympics is a sport, but everything in the Olympics is an event.
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That’s a dumb comparison. If anything sailing and NASCAR are competitive “events” not sports. Drivers are not physical specimens like players in the NBA and NFL and in some cases Major League Baseball.I’m not saying they are not talented, because they are. I can’t drive a car 500 laps at 200 MPH, but if I could that wouldn’t make me an “athlete”. These guys are talented drivers and nothing else.
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Is nobody seeing that this guy is saying nascar drivers have extreme skill; he ever disputed that claim. He’s trying to lay some knowledge on us. Truth is nascar drivers are in the same category as billiard players, golfers, sailors, poker players, ect. All of these activities take great skill but none require athleticism. If you take the average nascar driver, nba player, nfl player, mlb player, mls player, a track athlete and an average american and put them in an obstacle course that utilized athleticism (speed, agility, explosiveness, hand-eye coordination, endurance, ect) its almost a guarantee that the nascar driver would finish near the bottom and close to the average american.
They compete at what they do (so do chefs and CEOs), what they do can be extremely dangerous (just like white water rafting or sky diving), they must be extremely skilled to be successful (just like surgeons or lawyers), but athleticism is not needed as a necessity to be a good driver.
To be a good driver you must be in good physical shape (doesn’t require athleticism), be able to withstand high amounts of heat (doesn’t require athleticism), have above average strength (doesn’t require athleticism), have good hand-eye coordination (doesn’t require athleticism), and be mentally tough (doesn’t require athleticism).
Point: are nascar drivers athletes? No. Can a nascar driver be an athlete? Yes.
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@chris
according to that argument american football and lax aren’t sports cause they are not competed in at the games. You agree american football is not a sport?
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So what if football and lax aren’t selected by the Olympics? I think its a matter of how many countries are willing to compete in the event, not whether it is a sport/event. In the case of football and lax, not many countries would participate because they dont play in their home country, and as a result, they dont have a national team. Baseball and basketball are played all around the world. That is why they are olympic events. Football and lax are both sports, but they just are not played around the world.
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Cap’m it looks like you said the requirements for a NASCAR driver are the same that it would be for someone that had athleticism, but then said it’s not athleticism. To me an athlete is in good physical shape, can survive extreme conditions, has strength and endurance, and mentally strong to out think his/her competitors until the end. There should be a reality show where people that think racers aren’t athletes get strapped in a car with a concrete block on the gas pedal for 500 miles. They can compete against each other in equal equipment and see what kind of athleticism characteristics there are in being a racecar driver. Not to mention the team work in the pits, the garage area, and back home at the shop, which qualifies it as a sport. By the way the pit crew members are athletes as well.
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Athleticism is not something that can be learned! A true athlete (soccer, basketball, tennis, track, etc…) has naturally occuring, God-given, athletic abilities to run and jump and have lateral quickness and use their bodies to perform feats that a huge majority of average people simply could not do.
To play a true sport, like the ones mentioned above, a person must possess this natural athletic ability. Someone could go to “track practice” for years, but if they have no athletic ability, no amount of practice will help them succeed. The same goes for the other sports mentioned. Yes, there is alot of practice involved, but without the athletic ability, no amount of practice would help.
Nascar, on the other hand, IS something that can be learned. Just like golf, Nascar can be taken up by someone with zero natural athletic ability (I’m not talking about hand-eye coordination, there are millions of people with good hand-eye coordination, and that does not make them an athlete) and with enough practice, that person could succeed.
Don’t tell me that because someone can sit in a hot car for 3 hours, so they are now somehow an athlete. That argument is ludicrous.
Aaron: I have plenty of friends that posses the qualities you listed: Good physical shape (because they exercise, not because they are an athlete, any non-athlete could get into good physical shape), could survive extreme conditions (really? this makes them an athlete), has strength and endurance (anyone with a gym membership), and mentally strong (extremely physically handicapped people can be mentally strong), but these qualities certainly do not, in any way, make them an athlete.
Are some Nascar drivers athletes? Sure, there are many that probably are. Do you have to be an athlete to drive a nascar? Heck no. There have been nascar drivers in the past that were in their 70′s!!!!!!!!! They couldn’t run a 100-yard dash in a respectable time to save their lives!
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Very true. There is no doubt that these drivers do possess immense skill, but that skill is not necessarily athleticism.
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Actually no they don’t possess any more skill than anyone else… ANYONE can drive NASCAR it is NO more difficult than driving your buick on a highway… Its a SCIENTIFIC FACT that speed is relative… Therefore when everything around you is moving at 60 or 160 its still zero and the difficulty is exactly the same… END OF LESSON
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Just an interesting tidbit…
NASCAR events all over the country gather more spectators than all of the MLB games in the regular season COMBINED. In no way am I supporting NSCAR, but I just thought it was some food for thought.
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So, cycling is not a sport either because if a tire blows out the cyclist has to get it replaced before being able to continue?
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I think some of you need to take a reality check. None of you have any right to criticize it because you have not even experienced what it’s like! You can go down to the park and play football, baseball, or basketball, but you can’t get in a car and go 200 mph there. You really have no idea, so take your damn foot out of your mouth.
‘Oh well anybody can sit in a hot car for 3 hours.’
Well, I guess you’re right. Can anybody just sit in one going 150+ for 3 hours? Not many! And don’t embarrass yourself by saying you can. It’s like riding the Kingda Ka… for 3 hours. I can’t even do that more than once, I don’t know about any of you.
‘They can’t run a 100 yard dash to save their lives.’
Can defensive or offensive linemen? Can professional swimmers run like professional runners can? Vice versa? Simply, there are different breeds of athletes. It’s always been that way. You’re right NASCAR drivers aren’t like other athletes, but it certainly doesn’t exclude them!
‘It’s like driving on the highway.’
Oh, ok, well try and round up 42 of your best buddies and go drive on the highway at 150+, door-to-door. That doesn’t even compare because the highway is practically a straight line!
‘Well, they have to rely so much on their equipment, it’s really not their work.’
Well what do you think, the car is just going to drive itself? Is the bat going to swing itself? Is the ball going to magically fly in the air and land in the hoop? This just goes back to the idiocracy of trying to criticize them. If you ever get the chance to go and drive a NASCAR car, then come back and tell me all about how you thought it was easy and boring and takes no athletic ability. Somehow, I don’t think that will be your argument anymore. I agree with Aaron, there really should be a reality show for this! I would laugh so hard at you people.
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Kyle,
So you are actually saying that the ability to sit in a hot car for 3 hours makes someone an athlete? Really? Come on man, think about that.
I am the one that said “they can’t run a 100-yard dash to save their lives”. In context, I was talking about former drivers who were in their 70′s. Most likely at 70+ years of age, one is not going to run a very good 100 yard time, if they can run it at all. But they can certainly drive a car! Driving that car (and sitting in heat, LOL) does not make them an athlete. btw. Most NFL lineman can run pretty good times. Watch an NFL training camp or a combine, or play collegiate level football, and you will find out quickly that most (especially at the professional level) lineman are very athletic.
Did you just question if professional swimmers can run? Obviously they might not have Olympic run times, but they will most certainly be able to quite fast.
I’m sure driving with 42 of your buddies at 150+ on the highway, door to door, is tough, and something that most people could not do without training. But the ability to do this does not make someone an athlete. No natural running/jumping/lateral quickness/above average muscular ability is required to do this. This would be something that someone, even someone without athletic ability, could be trained to do.
That is the difference here. Athletic ability cannot be learned. Driving a car fast, can be learned.
Are some NASCAR drivers athletes, sure they are! Do you have to be an athlete to drive a NASCAR? No.
No one is saying that driving a NASCAR is “easy and boring”. I’m sure it is very tough, but it is something that can be learned.
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If Tony Stewart can with a championship, it’s not a sport.
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Nascar is a sport. Actually, nascar does require physical activity of the body. On average, a nascar driver loses 10 pounds in a race. More than the average basketball or football player where it may take 3 or 4 games to lose 10 pounds. Bottom line, NASCAR is a sport i don’t care what anyone says. If you have never been to a race, don’t be hating on nascar.
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I have to say I respect you for being mature about this topic. I have dealt with worse people on this topic saying that NASCAR takes no skill or talent or any athletic ability, and saying they are turning left for three hours.
But, I have to Compeletely Disagree with you on your thought about NASCAR being a sport and NASCAR drivers being athletes. You cannot watch a single NASCAR race on TV and decide whether you think its a sport or not. If you really wanted to get the inside of NASCAR, get a pit pass, or log on to NASCAR.COM and listen to the radios of the drivers.
Not only does NASCAR take an enormous amount of concentration and talent, it also takes a ton of ATHLETESISM. A NASCAR stock car is much more different than your minivan you drive to school/work. They are about 100 pounds heavier, weighing about a ton and three quarters (3500 lbs). You have to drive that racecar at incredible speeds around a racetrack, let’s say Texas Motor Speedway. The top speed you can and will get at Texas is about 175 – 180 mph. Throwing that car into the 24 degree banked turns, you are putting G-forces on yourself, about 3.2 Gs, or 3.2 times the earths gravity, at Texas ( some tracks have more, some less). You have to fight those G-forces, while maintaining precision driving with cars in front, behind, and on the sides of you, closer than you would park at a parking lot. You do get about that many Gs going down a roller coaster, but only for a time span of 3-5 seconds. These drivers are fighting these many Gs both horizontally and vertically (more horizontally) for three hours. And what about wrecks? Famous NASCAR driver Jeff Gordon crashed at Pocono Raceway in 2006, spinning in the corners and slamming into a concrete wall. What was virtually a harmless wreck; Gordon had about 64 Gs on him at the time of impact. Think of slamming into a wall like that at 130 mph. While NASCAR drivers have more safety mechanisms that a street legal car does, it still hurts. Sounds like a horrific crash, and there has been many more violent wrecks since then, and most likely worse.
Lastly, the pit crew. The jackman must lift that 3500 lbs car with just one pump with an aluminum jack. The tire guys, have to pull off that 75 lbs tire, and put a new, heavier tire on ( tires loose weight as they wear off rubber and air pressure). Repeat tha process one more time on the left side. The gasman has to fill that tank with fuel, holding a 45 pound gas tube at just the right angle for the fastest fuel drainage into the car. This all has to be done in less than 15 seconds, with absolutely no mistakes.
I am not positive I have changed your opinion on NASCAR drivers being athletes, but, before you call them unathletic, do a bit more studying than watching a race on TV for an hour.
One last thing, I have only scratched the surface.
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