>>I use to feel the same way until I started watching it when I moved here from Chicago. Given the stress, the hand/eye coordination, reflexes, etc. required to drive one of those things around (I think that they run about 3,500 pounds), at speeds up to 200 MPH with little if any margin for error, it's a sport alright.
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>Take a look at bull-riding. The bulls approach those same weights, the riders need the same coordination and reflexes to survive for a full 8 seconds.
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>And you think car crashes are gruesome? When the bull wins the round, you really feel the riders' pain...
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>(I admit i watch mainly for the wrecks)

I became a fan when I saw Dale Earnhardt zip between two cars at one race. The space between them was barely wide enough. There was an in car camera that caught it, and looking at it from that prespective you thought, "Naw, not enough room". There might not have been had there been one more coat of black paint. I'm a sports nut, and when I saw that, I realized exactly how much skill it took. Been a fan ever since (and, yes, a fan of "The Man in Black")