Good discussion about what makes "good racing"

The racing needs to be less boring.
In basketball, the pace of scoring can be furious. In football, a touchdown every few minutes. Even in baseball, there are innings where you’ll see back-to-back-to-back home runs.

But in NASCAR? Well ... it can be 500 miles of follow the leader.

One point that came up repeatedly in the interviews was that the actual racing has to be better. More exciting, more entertaining.

“Nothing is more important than the competition – how much passing you’ve got on the track, what kind of close finishes you have at the race, and the quality of entertainment that the race produces,” Wheeler said. “In my opinion, that’s first on the list because that is what’s going to eventually either keep people away from the grandstands or put them back in.”

Wheeler said he thinks NASCAR’s rules changes in recent years have led to decreased passing, especially for the lead. That, he and several others said, is what fans care about.

Watching four or five guys all battle for the lead, as was the case at the end of this year’s Daytona 500, creates drama and excitement – and rivalries, if those guys get tangled up.

https://www.charlotteobserver.com/sports/nascar-auto-racing/thatsracin/article207551864.html
 
@StandOnIt posting an article suggesting NASCAR be more like baseball, basketball, and football (which have more than their fair share of "boring" events).

I need to lie down.
 
FLRacingFan said:
@StandOnIt posting an article suggesting NASCAR be more like baseball, basketball, and football (which have more than their fair share of "boring" events).

I need to lie down.
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you posting about a couple of drivers who finished terrible in the All Star race with the package and they are probably quoting company policy.
 
StandOnIt said:
In basketball, the pace of scoring can be furious. In football, a touchdown every few minutes. Even in baseball, there are innings where you’ll see back-to-back-to-back home runs.
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I've seen many a 10-3 football game (and admit enjoy those that were due to strong defenses). There's nothing slower in sports that the last five minutes of a basketball game interrupted by a 'foul to get the ball back' strategy. Baseball? That's what I put on when I can't sleep.

My point is the author is cherry picking his examples.
 
These guys keep yammering on about how bored they are during these long stretches during races. Some suggest shortening the races to suit their short attention spans, an idea I'm not entirely opposed to. But most just speak to their crushing boredom and how the racing needs to excite them more with constant shuffling back and forth.

Is there a single scrap of empirical evidence (not anecdotal) that substantially more people start watching races, but abandon them mid-race due to boredom? The ratings data I follow suggests that NASCAR races perform much like other sporting events, in that total viewers peak closer to the finish for obvious reasons. Core audience members watch most or all of the race, more casual fans watch intermittently or catch the finish. I've never seen any evidence that any races have a larger audience earlier in an event that decreases throughout due to this boredom.
 
gnomesayin said:
These guys keep yammering on about how bored they are during these long stretches during races. Some suggest shortening the races to suit their short attention spans, an idea I'm not entirely opposed to. But most just speak to their crushing boredom and how the racing needs to excite them more with constant shuffling back and forth.

Is there a single scrap of empirical evidence (not anecdotal) that substantially more people start watching races, but abandon them mid-race due to boredom? The ratings data I follow suggests that NASCAR races perform much like other sporting events, in that total viewers peak closer to the finish for obvious reasons. Core audience members watch most or all of the race, more casual fans watch intermittently or catch the finish. I've never seen any evidence that any races have a larger audience earlier in an event that decreases throughout due to this boredom.
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there have been posting by the networks of peak audience numbers, how long people watch etc.
 
StandOnIt said:
there have been posting by the networks of peak audience numbers, how long people watch etc.
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Yes, and as I said, they peak toward the finish for obvious reasons, and the difference between peak viewership and average viewership isn't much different than other sports. Unless there is actual analysis that I'm unaware of.
 
What scares the hell out of me is that has NASCAR ever known what it is looking for? How do you gauge that the sport is where it needs to be? Ratings? Attendance? Big assumptions that a new generation of fans will come out the way the old generation once did.
 
Drivers giving it their all for every position at every moment in STOCK stock cars (since the definition of stock car has apparently been twisted to resemble something hastily recycled out of a car crusher in order to haphazardly make something that kinda looks like the street version... okay, maybe that's a little harsh) in untouched, genuine racing that lasts from the green flag to the checkered flag sounds really nice to me. Who else?
 
Charlie Spencer said:
Sure. They want the boom of 1997-2005 back. The problem is, they don't know why it happened in the first place.
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To me it’s the same thing as baseball. When the smartphone boom happened attention spans and interests changed sharply. It’s funny how MLB, NASCAR and PGA all started slides around this time and all three are untimed sports.

Both MLB and NASCAR have made good moves but they’re ultimately old time sports. In its heyday baseball had only 24 teams with only 4 making the postseason adding value to the long regular season. Likewise NASCAR had between 28-31 for years before it ballooned to 36. Bottomline is that many devalues individual races leaving us no choice but to have a playoff. Winning 8 times in a season isn’t what it used to be
 
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