lol, ESPN

[flyersfan4706]

I watch poker sometimes. It is the E in ESPN.

 

[Comeds]

I'm pretty sure comeds is joking, but aside from Tony Stewart, the majority of auto racers these days are pretty fit guys.

/Poker is a game, not a sport

It might have been hard to tell but I was being serious. The competitive eaters are doing something that most people cannot do and they actually train. I think they are much more of an athlete than auto racers. (thats what I should have poster originally)

Not that I find competitive eating at all interesting or anything but stupid.

 

[flyersfan4706]

It might have been hard to tell but I was being serious. The competitive eaters are doing something that most people cannot do and they actually train. I think they are much more of an athlete than auto racers. (thats what I should have poster originally)

Not that I find competitive eating at all interesting or anything but stupid.

I actually agree with all of this. I understand driving a race car is difficult, but youre really not doing a lot of work.

 

[elocomotive]

I actually agree with all of this. I understand driving a race car is difficult, but youre really not doing a lot of work.

I don't know - have you guys heard about the heat those guys have to tolerate in a race. It's like they are driving a sauna at 200mph. I understand balking at calling them "athletes," but there is certainly some skill, dexterity, and endurance involved. It's easily as physically demanding as something like baseball, which only requires a handful of 50-yard dashes on any given night.

 

[Vadered]

I don't know - have you guys heard about the heat those guys have to tolerate in a race. It's like they are driving a sauna at 200mph. I understand balking at calling them "athletes," but there is certainly some skill, dexterity, and endurance involved. It's easily as physically demanding as something like baseball, which only requires a handful of 50-yard dashes on any given night.

Automobile racing is far too reliant on its tools to qualify as a sport. Let me put it this way: If I were to go one on one with Wayne Gretzky or Mario Lemieux with me in really good hockey equipment and them in starter kits, I would get absolutely dominated. If I were to drive one on one with Dale Ernheart Jr. or whoever with me in his car and him in my shitty commuter car, I'd win. I wouldn't put up nearly the times they do in their professional cars, but I'd win. The gap between the skills of an amateur and an expert can be overcome by the gap in the equipment they use; that means you can never really be sure who won, the guy who was better or the guy who had a better car. Not a good setup.

And as for being physically demanding, yes it probably is, but that doesn't make it a sport. If I challenge another guy to a game of NHL 11 and we play while sitting outside in 100 degree heat, it's not a sport just because it was really hot. If you figured out a way to install a really nice AC in a NASCAR car that didn't affect the performance of the car, you'd eliminate 95% of the physical difficulty. If you figured out a way to maintain perfect temperature and humidity on a football field, it'd still be really tiring, because the physical nature wouldn't disappear. I'm not saying that racing drivers aren't fit; they have to be, because lugging an extra 20 pounds for 500 miles is going to cost you time. But you don't get to call yourself a sport when your "athletes" are responsible only for the application of force; not the production of it.

 

[dare2be]

rep for that excellent post, vadered

 

[elocomotive]

Automobile racing is far too reliant on its tools to qualify as a sport. Let me put it this way: If I were to go one on one with Wayne Gretzky or Mario Lemieux with me in really good hockey equipment and them in starter kits, I would get absolutely dominated. If I were to drive one on one with Dale Ernheart Jr. or whoever with me in his car and him in my shitty commuter car, I'd win. I wouldn't put up nearly the times they do in their professional cars, but I'd win. The gap between the skills of an amateur and an expert can be overcome by the gap in the equipment they use; that means you can never really be sure who won, the guy who was better or the guy who had a better car. Not a good setup.

And as for being physically demanding, yes it probably is, but that doesn't make it a sport. If I challenge another guy to a game of NHL 11 and we play while sitting outside in 100 degree heat, it's not a sport just because it was really hot. If you figured out a way to install a really nice AC in a NASCAR car that didn't affect the performance of the car, you'd eliminate 95% of the physical difficulty. If you figured out a way to maintain perfect temperature and humidity on a football field, it'd still be really tiring, because the physical nature wouldn't disappear. I'm not saying that racing drivers aren't fit; they have to be, because lugging an extra 20 pounds for 500 miles is going to cost you time. But you don't get to call yourself a sport when your "athletes" are responsible only for the application of force; not the production of it.

Really good post and analogies. Like I said, I understand not calling them athletes. The line of athlete/sport is always fuzzy and it's mostly just semantics anyway. I would imagine that racing a car at 200mph could not be done by most people though, even if they aren't the ones creating the force themselves beyond pushing down their right foot.

 

[DChero]

It's kind of funny because I don't lump all motorsports under the same banner either. Motocross racers are athletes to me. If they were just drag racing I wouldn't consider then athletes. I think the sport dictates whether they're athletes as much as the equipment involved.