When it comes to the word sport or athlete, we automatically think of an activity that involves a person or group of people and a ball. We never really think of driving a car as sport, or having an athlete drive that car, until I got behind a NASCAR myself. One thing I learned was the amount of skill and knowledge it takes to drive a car 150 mph with thirty other drivers going for that same white line. You might not consider them an athlete, but by all means they are professionals. When it comes to the world of professional sports and driving and competing in these areas, all other words aside, it takes a professional to be the best. I don't think we should sit back and call people out just because of the sport or activity they participate in, we should simply recognize the face that they are regular humans who are really good at something. Driving a NASCAR let alone a fast car is very hard and takes allot of skill, that's why NASCAR is a professional Venue.
5 comments:
I agree that it is probably very difficult, not to mention life-threatening, to drive a car around 200mph -- even if it is in an oval, over, and over, and over again. I guess that makes NASCAR drivers atheletes . . . but just barely.
A driver relies on a machine to compete. This alone makes a driver less of an athelete than a person who relies more significantly on their physical abilities to compete.
Virtually all sports involve some sort of object(s) or device(s) to be manipulated by the athelete. In this sense, a car is no different than a ball. But a car is different -- it does alot more work. As a result, success is closely linked to financial support, which degrades the value of the athelete.
To be fair, though, these guys work hard -- as one driver once said, "There are drivers who are forced to urinate all over themself during races, and there are drivers who lie about it."
NASCAR is just a different kind of sport. It takes massive skill and a certain level of strength to maneuver the car at such speeds. The car is just the tool. It wouldn't really go anywhere without the driver. And I definitely think NASCAR is way more of a sport than poker.
This is an arguement that people can debate on for a ton of different things..."is it a sport, or not?"
I think there are so many different technacalities in distinguishing what a sport is, that it should all just come down to competition. If a person or team wins, and there are losers, it is a sport. Whether it is judged, like many sports in the olympics, or is based on a score...NASCAR is a sport.
Sure, it takes a great deal of skill and endurance to be a NASCAR driver, but so does being a landscaper. NASCAR is just a competition, not a sport.
I was reading racquet girl's blogpost which is about poker. And this post is also very interesting. My dictionary is written that
"Sports are games such as football and basketball and other competitive leisure activities which need physical effort and skill."
Then, I looked IOC website. One interesting thing is that the chess is one of recognized sport.
I guess NASCAR needs much higher skills rather than chess, and it needs higher physical effort as well. So...isn't NASCAR one of sports?
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