RE: TV
The reason that NASCAR appeals to al the Americans is that NASCAR has been able to perpetuate a myth, that being hte myth that the drivers in NASCAR are just like the fans, you know good ole boys that wear jeans and drive a pick-up. Any educated racer know that this isn't the case since NASCAR is very expensive to run and to get in you have to excel at lower formulas which costs a lot more money then a pro-rally season. Yet NASCAR drivers are still "just like us". Because of european names and foreign accents most Americans see a rally or F1 race and see each driver as a rich, spoiled , sissy, euro which we all know is not hte case. IF Dale, Bobby, ernie, etc. drove F1 and were from North Carolina then alot of these folks would watch F1. remember going to the USGP and you wouldn't believe the amount of Dale Ernhardt, Camouflage, and mesh hats that I saw. I had a group of these people sitting in front of me and the running commentary was "they are fast but what would that sissy euro do with the Intimidator on his ass, sheeeit these guys couldn't handle daytona either!" I neglected to mentino that I thought Earnhardt couldn't handle Eau Rouge, but just like most people we think that our sports are better but in this case their sport is better marketed. Think about it if Marcus Gronholm or Tommi spoke perfect english and were name ernie and dale they would be huge withthe NASCAR set since they are country boys, hell Tommi always is talking about diving his Tractor!!