Motorsports vs. The World
Kaleb Dorale
Motorsports vs. The World
Motorsports are a very touchy subject, especially regarding people's opinions about them. The biggest argument regarding motorsports is whether or not they should be considered legitimate sports, which has ripped the sports world apart. Outstanding arguments both validate and disagree with the claim that they are sports. Given their broadcasting, their team aspect, and plenty more, I am heavily leaning towards the idea that they are sports and should be treated that way.
To start with, motorsports are actively broadcasted just like every other sports event and are broadcasted to similar channels and the same cable providers. I’m not saying that normal sports are lame and shouldn’t be broadcast. I’m saying that both get broadcasted and yes, obviously people attend these in person as well. With 20.72 million attending sports events yearly and over 15 million attending motorsports events yearly. Keep in mind that the number of motorsports viewers is still growing, due to the rising popularity of motorsports and with some motorsports series starting back up here very recently. Now in-person viewership is vastly different than turning on the TV and watching. Certain motorsports, like cross country, WRC (World Rally Championship), trophy trucks, and more, do not allow the in-person viewers to not fully see the entire event. With that same topic, people still attend those events, even though they can’t watch the full event like you can with Formula 1, NASCAR, motocross, etc.
The next argument I'm going to talk about is the team aspect that most motorsports have. NASCAR has your teammates, your spotter, your crew chief, and your pit crew. With endurance races, for example, the 24-hour Le Mans, you have the same general team crew as NASCAR, also seen in F1. With WRC, endurance off-road races, and cross-country racing, which are much longer, you aren’t enclosed within a track; you have your co-driver, who has a map of the track and guides you to each turn, jump, and obstacle, and the severity of turns and other important details the driver would need to know. That is also applied to the other motorsports listed above. These are still team members; a team can be two people. The drivers in all motorsports rely on their team members, no matter what size the team is, to get them around the track safely and quickly. Teams are a huge part of standard sports and lead to a better game. In football, baseball, basketball, soccer, tennis, and even ping-pong, you have teammates that make the game what it is. Having a team is a cornerstone of what makes up the definition of what sports are.
Now I do understand that they have the classification for motorsports, hence the name, but why do we have to specify that it is motorsports? Why not just refer to them as sports as a whole? What’s the point in giving them classifications if, at the end of the day, they’re still just considered sports? Now I get that there should be classifications, and I will present the argument for esports, which I do feel could also be wrapped into this opinion, but not to the full extent that motorsports should be. Yes, esports contains everything I mentioned earlier that makes up what the idea of a sport is. But you also lose the activeness and physical gain that sports and motorsports have. Motorsports strain drivers just as much as normal sports do in the mental, emotional, and physical aspects. Esports does the same, up until you get to the physical aspect. Esports strain players, and I won’t try and say that it doesn’t, but physically, it does practically nothing for them besides the gain in reaction time, hand-eye coordination, and precision skills. But nothing that strains the muscles in your body, other than your brain. While motorsports puts you in some of the most bodily and muscle-demanding situations, between the forces pulled onto your head and the precision and muscle work in pedal and steering skills. Motorsports do demand a lot from the racers' bodies and adaptability to the harsh situations that may be presented.
I just think it’s ridiculous that we have sports classifications. Yes, I do believe some sports should have different classifications, but others seem pointless. Motorsports involve a team and a competitive environment, and those reasons, in my eyes, allow them to fall into the category that doesn’t need a classification. I’ve argued this multiple times, but I will stick by this opinion until the day I die.