For those that know me best know that I am not a fan of Nascar in the least bit. The massively long races consisting of cars going around in circles for a long period of time has never attracted my interest. I personally think that the races are too long, most of the tracks are the same, and that the racers get far much more credit than they deserve. When you win races, you honestly have to give it to the cars much more than the person because of the length of driving required—and a good portion of the credit goes to the pit crew. So what happens if a very good driver has a weaker car and a weaker pit crew? Then he doesn’t have a chance. And that’s not fair, I’d rather the driver have to work to earn his/her honor of being one of the best racers out there.
Nascar to me is like Mario Kart Wii in real life---you can be an excellent driver but if good luck and fortune is not on your side, then you just aren’t going to win. Perhaps this is what upsets me the most about the league; they don’t make it so that truly the best driver wins. Now I have assembled a way to make Nascar more interesting for me, and perhaps this will make Nascar more interesting for the rest of us. Because honestly its become like baseball—a sport that has suffered mildly because the society we live in is now more ADD than ever...and needs mild adjusting. How can I be a huge fan of racing games (ironically, even Daytona USA, an arcade game about a Nascar race) yet barely tolerate the sport that is all about racing?
For starters, the time trials should still occur to determine our order of cars. The 50 best times will go to the big race. Now, the big race will consist of not one race, but a total of 6 individual, much smaller races. The top 10 cars at the time trials face off in the first race, then the next 10 cars face off, and so on. Instead of the 194897741 laps that each car must do around the track, we are going to limit them to a simple yet effective 10 laps. That’s it. You have 10 laps to prove yourself to be the best driver. That makes the race shorter, more intense, and leaves with the drivers less time to make a mistake. Now, the winning car gets to have his car fixed up by the pit crew while awaiting the other races to finish.
We get a starting-off total of 5 10-lap races, and the winners of each race square off in one final race that determines the winner. The spectators get a total of 6 races, and 60 laps of cars going in circles. The stakes are higher amongst the participants and the spectators won’t have time to show signs of spectating fatigue. And we the viewer can be glued to the event pretty much the whole way through as oppose to being able to get up, leave, grab a sandwich, flirt with the neighbor, fight zombies, and then return to watch the final hour of the race. Zzzzzzzz.
Oh, and with the point system you ask? Only the top 5 get points, period. Winner gets 50, 2nd place gets 40, 3rd place gets 30, 4th place gets 20, and 5th place gets 10. There is no need to complicate things in the least bit with all these added rules and regulations. Currently only 10 points separates 1st place from 11th place. You serious? While there are other recommendations I would love to present (different track terrain, much more variety amongst the tracks in the Nascar series) the one that is most required is the shortening of these races so that they are much more…watchable.
Bottom Line: So how can we improve Nascar? Make the races shorter, and make the point system easier to follow. The most popular sport in the world is soccer, and it’s mostly because it’s the easiest to follow. Why not apply the soccer treatment to Nascar by creating 10-lap races and giving points only to the top 5 drivers? I think if we apply these major but easy-to-make changes, then it would build a better fanbase, and would be easier to pick up and follow for a new generation of fans. Racing is a lot of fun to watch, let’s not kill it with 2,300-lap races.
Let’s work together. Let’s make Nascar.....unboring(I know, that’s not a word)
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