The New York Times:

For a certain segment of the population, Nascar's raid on American culture -- its logo festoons everything from cellphones to honey jars to post office walls to panties; race coverage, it can seem, has bumped everything else off television; and, most piercingly, Nascar dads now get to pick our presidents -- triggers the kind of fearful trembling the citizens of Gaul felt as the Huns came thundering over the hills. To these people, stock-car racing represents all that's unsavory about red-state America: fossil-fuel bingeing; lust for violence; racial segregation; run-away Republicanism; anti-intellectualism (how much brain matter is required to go fast and turn left, ad infinitum?); the corn-pone memes of God and guns and guts; crass corporatization; Toby Keith anthems; and, of course, exquisitely bad fashion sense. What's more, they simply don't get it. What's the appeal of watching . . . traffic? It's as if ''Hee Haw'' reruns were dominating prime time, and the Republic was slapping its collective knee at Grandpa Jones's ''What's for supper?'' routine. With Nascar's recent purchase of a swath of real estate on Staten Island, where it intends to plop down an 80,000-seat racetrack and retail center for the untapped New York City market, the onslaught seems poised on the brink of full-out conquest. Cover your ears, blue America. The Huns are revving their engines.

I watch NASCAR regularly, and I just think that NASCAR is filling the void of wholesome family entertainment. NASCAR is now a national sport, with tracks from New Hampshire to Sonoma, California. With steroids running rampant in baseball, hockey locked out, and football not in season, what other sport is there? Sure, NASCAR is a merchandising machine, but so is Star Wars right now.

An Instapundit reader points out:

As a reader suggests, "Replace 'NASCAR' with 'Hip-hop,' and then ask yourself whether this would have run in the Times." Certainly the editors would have objected to the condescension and stereotyping that run throughout.

Posted by Ryan S. on Sunday, May 22, 2005 at 11:18 AM | Permalink |