>>I can see it now. One of Dragan's questions will be, "Why do they climb in and out of the windows?"
>
>Being a Southerner for over a decade you would think that I should know this, but why do they? Speed? Car stability? It looks cool?

Lots of reasons...

The roll cage built into the stock car frame leaves big tubing right in front of each door. So even if the doors worked, you still wouldnt be able to go in & out easily. And since NASCAR requires the car frame has to be "stock" (after all it is "stock car racing") the doors still have to be there. But they can eliminate some weight by removing the hinge & door support mechanisms, which of course means the doors have to permanently welded on..... which is also a good safety measure: if a car was to get crashed in such a way that it would loose a door, that door could hurt somebody at 200 mph and the roll cage protecting the driver would be exposed for initial impact damage. And if the roll cage gets crunched, it takes the frame & chassis with it. Once the frame is damaged, the car is done. Where as with most wrecks you see, they can take car back to the shop & stripped it down to the frame and rebuild it just like new.