Let's get this straight so we don't start on the wrong foot. Outside of F1 and MotoGP I've probably only watched two or three US-based races in my entire life.
All of them were the Indy 500, and the one I remember best was the year two-time F1 champion Fernando Alonso came close to winning it in 2017 (at least, he did in my IndyCar limited brain).
So for this fan from the east side of the Atlantic, my knowledge of stateside racing is sadly limited and that is unfortunate because my tiny exposure to it has been enjoyable.
In my defence, my early years consisted of having only four TV channels where it felt like most of the time they were showing soap dramas. Not much room for the big American sports.
And I don't just mean IndyCar, that counts for NASCAR too... albeit through the medium of computer games I did carve out an interest in the latter.
Now while NASCAR news is a little down on the uptake, let me indulge you in how this F1 nutcase ended up growing up playing only NASCAR content for a time?
How an F1 nerd played only NASCAR games
Well in Ripley Towers, we had a Mac my father would use for work, but in my quest to find something to amuse myself aside from watching ACME Looney Tunes screen savers (I'm easily entertained but honestly they were great!) I came across a demo of 'a' NASCAR game.
I say 'a' because 30 years later I'm still not sure what version it was. The NASCAR Racing game released in 1994 by Papyrus passes the look test, but that does not feature the late great Dale Earnhardt (strange omission considering *checks notes* he won the championship that year), and yet I would have not known who he was because of this NASCAR game. NASCAR Racing 2 which was released later does feature him, yet it looks too polished compared to the game I remember.
Anyway, I loved this demo despite how limited it was. For instance, I would often skate into the lead but I never won a race because I kept running out of fuel. I tried easing off the gas at times to get my car further but it wasn't enough to reach the finish line.
I tried getting cars to push me along but that only ended up in me staring close up at a barrier in a wreck.
Yes, I tried pitting too, but nothing would happen. Still it was a racing game, and it was the only one I had so I kept playing it and kept running out of fuel but the enjoyment factor never wore off, until I got a PlayStation and an F1 game with it.
Not knowing the drivers, I changed their names to reflect the numbers F1 drivers would have in real life.
Yet, despite this, in my memory Jeff Gordon's No. 24 became Michael Schumacher (don't ask), while that magnificent looking Cornflakes car (or for you NASCAR fans, Hendrick Motorsport's Chevrolet driven by Terry Labonte) was F1's Damon Hill with his No. 5 from his final season with Williams in 1996 - the year I was playing this game.
I can't even remember who I was in the game. All I remember was racing around Charlotte's Speedway (I think) and also around a race track that through process of elimination of the 1994 calendar looks like it is Sears Point Raceway (I think)... where again I would run out of fuel with two laps to go.
But aside from just weird things we do as kids, I have a fondness for NASCAR and oval racing and it is just cheap to say 'it's cars going around in a circle, LOLz'. The close racing and arms out aggressive battles make it enjoyable and the racing is a respectable skill on its own away from the challenges of a circuit layout.
My life schedule doesn't allow me to take on even more motor racing on, but from this massive F1 nerd there is a knowing nod of respect to the NASCAR series. I just wished I could firstly get the classic game again and secondly get it working and learn how to actually do a pitstop.
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