Racing round in circles! (Nascar Series in General)

Name: rob_writer

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Product:	Nascar Series in General
Date:	01/08/01 (44 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Fast, Furious

Disadvantages: I don't like it, Safety?

Nascar is quite a hard thing to describe. It's an American Racing series, and although there are a number of series and rival competitions, by far the most popular is the series known as 'The Winston Cup'.

Nascar?s look a little like Touring Cars, although the similarity between them ends there. Touring Cars are modified road cars, whereas Nascars are pure and simply designed for racing. To put it bluntly they are engines on wheels. The bodywork is rather flimsy and seems to tear off like a paper wrapper every time the cars crash. So, you have a big engine, wheels and a flimsy body shell in the general shape of a normal car. Oh, and did I mention they go at about 200 mph. And even better than that, they often run 2 or 3 abreast at 200mph. Except, they always go in circles.

Yes, Nascar, like too many of the American racing series tend to race mostly on Ovals. They do race on the odd road course, but this is very much the exception not the rule, and these powerful machines often look out of place on a twisty track.

Lots of people over here immediately hear the word 'Oval' and suddenly think it means boring! It simply isn't so. I admit, I was sceptical too and initially I expected all races on ovals to be boring. Since then I have watched a lot of oval racing, and it is certainly no more boring than a normal circuit, infact it can actually be MORE exciting! The action is never going to compare with a thrilling, action packed street course, but on ovals you get consistently good racing - there are no precessions here!!


The ovals themselves vary in size, some are short, some long, some have steep baking, others less steep banking, some aren't even oval - they can be triangular or other strange hybrid shapes.

The field of cars can be as high as 40 or more cars, and the nature of the tracks and close performance of the cars means that they run close together. It's not uncommon for the cars
to be running two or three abreast in rows, with the cars behind pretty much touching the back of the car in front. It's an awesome sight on TV to see these cars so close, at such high speeds, but as the races only take place in the USA then it's something that you can't see for real unless you're really devoted!!

The cars aren't actually too hi-tec, they still use a gear stick and generally lack the electronic bits that Formula One and other cars have. For an example of that, refuelling is done by a big earn of fuel which is allowed to flow in to the car under the power of nothing other than gravity. At least it saves those embarrassing refuelling problems that plagues F1 teams.

As the racing is fast and close crashes, as you may expect, are BIG. If one car at the front of the pack hits the wall carnage ultimately follows, as the other cars dive all over the place in an attempt to keep out of the way. You get some VERY big crashes. The use of the safety car is also frequent, for even the slightest incident. Of course, safety is paramount on these fast and dangerous ovals, something reinforced by the tragic death of Dale Earnhart in one of last years races.

So, is Nascar fun to watch? Yes and no. It should be, given the close racing, and I enjoy Indycar racing on ovals, BUT Nascar doesn't do it for me. It just seems boring. Round and round in circles all the time. Indycar is good on ovals, but Nascar isn't as good. Dunnow why, it's probably just me!

For us in the UK who want to watch it, you can see it on Eurosport on Sunday nights. Some races are live, some aren't on at all. It's all pot luck!!

It's worth a watch though, so check it out!

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