Poll of the Day > I just finished watching The Love Bug and have a question about racing.

(+) Yeah! (+)

Why does nascar race in circles instead of large winding courses? Why does nascar regulate the cars that can be entered instead of competing with normal cars or allowing companies to try new car designs and methods of racing?

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not 100% sure, but I think to make the race as close as possible. also to maximize the speed of the race, and the number of position changes that occur, all of which (I guess) adds to the excitement. it also makes pit timing critical, since your tire wear makes an enormous difference as to how fast you take each turn.

good video explaining some of it:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=X-F4fKTFveI

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This is total speculation, but I think one of the defining factors of the oval design is to allow the spectators pretty much a 100% view of the track and race.

Could be wrong

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By regulating cars, they equalize the field, making the drivers ability the defining factor in winning.

Some race tours are on long windy road races, like the grand prix, but deaths to drivers and spectators forced most racing onto oval tracks.

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It's because one of the first race tracks was at Daytona Beach, which used a stretch of beach as one straightaway and State Road A1A as the other, with two tight turns at each end. Stock car racing has its origins in bootlegging during Prohibition. Bootleggers and later moonshiners would modify their production model ("stock") cars to outrun the police and revenuers. By the 1940s, the moonshiners started racing with each other, which became a popular form of entertainment in the South.

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