Why NASCAR Is More Entertaining To Watch Than a Football Game

Why is NASCAR more entertaining than a football game? Well, let's look at each first.

A football game essentially consists of two teams, 11 two-hundred-pound guys on the field for each team. They face off every week in stadiums across the country. No matter what stadium they play at, the field is always 120-yards long and 53-1/3-yards wide, with 100 yards between goal lines.

All the fields have green grass or some synthetic substitute. The fields are level, solid ground. There are no holes to worry about tripping in while you're running. The two teams play for four quarters, repetitively trying to drive down the field, past the other team, and score. The only thing that changes is the weather and time of day.

A NASCAR race has 43 teams, 43 drivers, and 43 cars weighing 3,400 pounds apiece. They face off on racetracks across the country every weekend.

Some racetracks are ovals, and some are road courses. The size of each track varies, from the smallest on the circuit, Martinsville, at just over half-a-mile in circumference, to the largest, Talladega, at 2.66 miles around. Each track has its own set of challenges. Some tracks are freshly paved and smooth as glass, others are weathered, with bumps in the turns that make the cars bounce around and wobble.

Weather plays a factor in every race weekend. Sometimes rain washes the track, leaving teams scrambling to figure out the correct setup with the limited practice time left before the green flag. Sometimes it's hotter or colder than expected, and the grip of the track changes.

In day-to-night races, the track changes as the sun sets, and the teams have to change their car throughout the race to stay competitive.

The objective for the teams and drivers is to drive well each lap, and try to be around at the end to get a win or at least a solid finish. 

Now, there are two main ways to be a fan of your favorite sport every week.

First, you can watch the network broadcasts on TV, yell, scream, jump up, and cheer for your team while you're watching with friends or bar mates. Second, you can buy tickets, drive to where the game or race is that weekend, and yell, scream, jump, and cheer for your team there, with the action happening right in front of you.

This is where the real difference between racing and other stick-and-ball sports shows up.

If you've been to a football game recently, you may notice, every so often, a guy with a headset gets out on the field, stands next to a ref, and during that time, the action stops, and no plays are run. The only thing to watch is the cheerleaders on the sidelines, or maybe something entertaining on the giant screen.

Perhaps a lucky fan wins a lifetime supply of hot dogs, or maybe they win that shiny new car that you all walked past on the way in.

After this TV time-out, the little man runs off the field, and the action continues. I fully understand why this happens, don't get me wrong, if I'm watching at home I don't want to miss that great 60-yard pass for the touchdown.

However, if I'm there in person, these pauses make me wish I had brought my PSP, or a magazine, anything to occupy the pauses.

This TV time-out thing really wouldn't work in racing. The closest a network could come would be to just pick up where they left off before the commercial, kind of like when you press pause of your Tivo. You can walk away for a couple of minutes, come back, and not miss any of your favorite show.

However, in racing, not every lap is super important, not every lap has a great pass for the lead, or a gnarly wreck in turn one. It's the job of the network to pick up those important things that happen during a commercial break, and show them to the fans at home through instant replay.

Admittedly, sometimes the TV guys miss some of the good racing during the commercials, but I often miss what's happening in the game when some previous Super Bowl champion, long since retired, is drawing on the screen half the time in bright neon colors!

So what's another reason racing is more exciting to watch? Motivation.

In a football game, or really any non-racing sport, each team knows they only have to beat the other team to win. If they can outdo the other guys, whether it's by a little or a lot, they win. If the plays are called right, then they can move the ball down the field, bit by bit, and as long as they can get 10 yards in three plays, then they get to do it all over again, until they score.

The teams don't have to go all out to win, they can play it a little cooler, be more defensive, and don't throw the long passes where they can lose the ball. They just run it up the middle, through all those linemen. Do that better than the other team, and you win.

In racing, there isn't just one guy you have to be better than to win, there are 42 guys. You can't play it cool and safe when you have to beat that many people. You have to take chances, gamble a little, and put up the big plays to end up the winner when they wave the checkered flag.

I can't speak for everyone else, but I know that when I watch a football game, and especially if I pay money for a ticket, drive to the stadium, sit in the cold weather, rain hitting my face, soaking my clothes, I want to see something exciting, something spectacular.

I want to see the receiver barely catch the ball before going out of bounds. I want to see the quarterback snap the ball to the receiver, just before he gets sacked. I want to be surprised when the quarterback throws to the guy in the end zone 60-yards away, instead of the easy 10-yard pass.

I want to see that guy on the other team get clobbered six-yards short of the end zone on the third down. I want to be on the edge of my seat about whether my team can hold them off for just one more down. Don't let them score!

I guess if I had to sum it all up in just one sentence, one reason why racing is more exciting to watch: it keeps me on the edge of my seat a lot more often than any football game ever has.

Not every game is going to thrill me with those long passes, those games where the receiver dodges six guys bent on bringing him to the ground; his footwork alone is a thing of beauty. I'd say probably 40 percent of the time I watch a football game, I walk out happy with the time spent, happy that I saw an exciting game.

With racing, however, I walk away, having seen an amazing race, about 98 percent of the time.