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In order to resolve this long-running debate, deep investigation was needed. I looked on the Internet and discovered a nifty website called www.sportnonsport.com that gave a scoring system to determine whether an activity is just that or if it could possibly be considered a sport. By using this scoring system, I can then put to rest all of my (and maybe some other people’s) fears.

The scoring system is very simple. Four criteria are used to determine what an activity is: physical exertion, skill, rules, and competition. If something has all four of these criteria, they can then move on to the scoring phase. When all the subscores are added up and the final score is over 75 points, the activity can be considered a sport. A score between 50 and 74 is a recreation activity (like a contest or a game), between 25 and 49 is a leisure activity and anything below 24 is a hobby.

Each criteria has several subcategories that are assigned scores which then determine whether something is a sport or not. Physical exertion has the following subcategories measuring it: conditioning, endurance or “toll”, lifespan, injury, and who or what. Skill is established by practice, body type, athlete, equipment mastery and equipment involvement/participation. Rules are basically how the winner is determined. Competition is based on physical contact, offense/defense, interaction, environment and head-to-head. (A complete breakdown of what each subcategory means can be found at http://sportnonsport.com/sport2.htm.)

Each criteria has 30 maximum amount of points to be earned, except rules which is only 10 points. Going through the extended version of the subcategories, I will try to give an unbiased score of NASCAR racing to see if it is actually a sport.

Physical: For conditioning I give a 0/6. If someone knows how to drive a stick shift, he/she can drive in NASCAR. There is not physical preparation required. For toll I give a 3/6. It depends on the race day and whether or not the driver crashed into a wall. Lifespan: 3/6. The older a driver gets, the harder it is for him/her to take the physical toll. Injury: 6/6. The slightest move can send them crashing into the wall and potentially kill them. Who or what would get a 1 out of 6 because it’s not the driver doing the majority of the work, it’s the car. For Physical I give NASCAR racing a 13.

Second criteria is skill. For practice I give a 4/6. Not much practice is needed to drive the car, but to drive at those speeds does take quite a lot. Athlete gets a 2/6. There is no strength or agility involved, but endurance is a big one. Not being able to stand high temperatures for a long period of time means you canot race cars. Body type receives a 0 out of 6. No one has to train their body in order to race, as long as they are fit for driving. Equipment mastery gets a 2 out of 6. Nearly everyone of legal age knows how to drive a car, NASCAR racing just adds a few extras. For equipment contribution I give a 2 out of 6. The car does most of the work and can go at high speeds with any type of driver. Overall skill has 10 points.

Rules would get a 10 out of 10. It is totally up to the drivers to determine who wins a race, it is not determined by judges or someone outside of racing completely.

Competition has 5 subcategories. For physical contact I give a 4 out of 6. If the driver’s car comes in contact with another car, and the first driver is knocked unconscious, that driver cannot continue with the rest of the race and the outcome is thus affected. Offense/defense receives a 6/6. Not only do drivers need to have a plan to win, but they need to be ready to defend themselves against other drivers. Interaction also get a 6 out of 6 from me. One driver’s actions directly affects another’s. For environment I give another 6/6. The drivers are surrounded by others who want to win as well, so everyone is everyone’s enemy and the environment is more aggressive. The last factor is head-to-head. I give this a 6 out of 6. Everyone is driving at the same time, not separately. Competition gets a 28 out of 30.

In the end, when all the scores are added up, NASCAR racing gets a 61, which is a recreational activity. While it does not qualify as a sport it is still pretty close. I suppose NASCAR racing isn’t actually a sport, not in the way rugby or football is. But it is still extremely competitive and has a lot of elements to it. I’m not going to stop watching, and other fans shouldn’t either. It doesn’t matter that it’s not a sport, it’s still enjoyable.

What Is a Sport And What Is Not
http://www.sportnonsport.com