The Daytona 500 was today. I know that because it's the headline on CNN.com as of 10:46 p.m.; other than that, I couldn't give a rat's ass. Back when I was a little kid and had an AFX slot-racing track, I had interest in autoracing only to the extent that I could take the track and run it straight into a wall and crash the cars. I'm not going to poo-poo the skill of the drivers -- after all, they're going really fast and packed together like NYC cabs -- but I'm not really interested in the activity, and I can't figure out why it's so popular. Perhaps I should check the MLA bibliography to see if anyone's written a cultural analysis of the popularity of stock car racing.
The only thesis I have is far too speculative and frankly inflammatory, so I only trot it out as an example -- I have absolutely no research to back up this thesis: Has interest in the activity risen in proportion to a sense that "traditional sports" (the big 3: football, basketball, baseball) are dominated by non-white or non-US athletes?
I am also wondering about larger marketing tie-ins, where the drivers are featured on soda machines, in television ads for fast food restaurants or other everyday products, etc. There is a chicken/egg issue at work there: are the marketeers latching onto public interest in NASCAR or is NASCAR creating public interest through increased marketing of their product to the general public? Somewhat tied to that is a small class issue: has interest in NASCAR been suppressed among middle and upper classes in the past due to an association with "hillbillies"? And if so, is current marketing strategy freeing those more well-heeled aficionados to enjoy the activity in public?
At any rate, I didn't watch the race, but apparently the former Miami Hurricanes and Dallas Cowboys head coach won it. And I thought Joe Gibbs was the only footballer involved in NASCAR.
1 comment:
You always ask the best questions, Mass. Too bad I have no answers. I wish I did.
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