Racing is a true sport: no matter what you think

Everyone always says "well it's not that hard, all you do is turn left. I could do that." When people tell me that racing isn't a "real sport" I go CRAZY! First of all your insulting something that I enjoy, which is showing disrespect to myself, secondly I didn't ask for your opinion on racing, and lastly you are wrong. Racing requires leadership, team work, focus, stratagey, mental and physical stress, practice, practice, practice, and risks. Like all sports, racing has leaders, your crew chief, driver, and car owner are all examples of leaders in racing. The crew chief is like your catcher, he is a veteran to the sport, he knows what he is doing, and he can see everything throughout the race. The driver is the captin of the ship, so to speak, he drives the car without messing it up, he tells you how the car feels, loose or tight, and he and that car are all your hard work, time and effort go into that whole week. The pit crew are your team mates. They practice all week long, filling the tank, changing the tires, and jacking up the car. They all have to be a well tuned machine, one mistake can change the whole race. Many races are won and lost on pit road. the difference between a 13 second pit stop to a 30 pit second stop could be 10 positions or more. Pit stops are used to improve the cars, grip, the the looseness or tightness of the car, to repair damage to the car or replace flat tires, fill the gas tank, and clean off the wind shield. Local dirt racing is similar, but there are no pit stops. Dirt is much harder to race on though. Track conditions, tire size and preassure, gear ratio, and engine power can effect on how fast you can go. I prefer dirt racing to NASCAR because the races are shorter. NASCAR averages around 300 to 500 laps, where as racing at local dirt tracks range from 30 laps, to a once a year 100 lap race. Dirt racing has been around for a long long time, since prohibition. Starting out in the hills of North Carolina when illegal moonshiners raced away from police. It began escalate to sundays all the "shiners" would show off their hot rods. Just a little racing history there for ya. The last reason why I feel racing is a sport is that drivers are physically exterting themselves out there. They are driving for 3 and a half hours at the least to five hours strait during a time period. During the summer months that can take a toll on a driver, which is why they have a gatorade rig to their helmets. Why would race car drivers have to drink gatorade if they weren't athletes? The answer is that they are atheletes, and I've given you enough proof for you to believe that. If you still think otherwise please tell me your reasoning by commenting on this post, and if you do feel that racing is a sport, good for you. To those who agree, welcome to the biggest spectator sport in our nation.