Thread: Rally Racing in the US?

Is rally racing popular at all in the US? Most of the stuff I see is from Europe, but I can't imagine why the sport never would have picked up in the states.

Rallly Driving is very popular in some areas of the US. NASA Rally Sport is an organization that sponsors rally car racing here. You can check out there race schedule for 2010 to see if there are any races in your area.

NASA Rally Sport

In my humble opinion, the reason why rally racing is not much done in the US because the US has so many sports.

Rally racing will be watched after the football, the baseball, the basketball, the soccer, or the hockey games are over. This is just my observation.

The reason its not a popular sport in the States is because it cannot be run in a stadium (preferably covered) in front of half a gazillion people and without tailgate parties before the event.

Laughing still at your comment there. I am not ashamed to admit that it is probably true though. There are some major rally fans but not nearly as many as in Europe.

Originally Posted by oldcanuck

The reason its not a popular sport in the States is because it cannot be run in a stadium (preferably covered) in front of half a gazillion people and without tailgate parties before the event.

Do they do the tailgate parties before or during racing events in the US as much as they do with football? (the NFL sport, not the European football )

I seem to recall a friend talking about a beer tent or something at the Michigan 500 and it sounded like a similar atmosphere.

Well, I was at the Phoenix NASCAR race a few years ago in November and saw a few tailgate parties in the parking lot, complete with barbecues and living room furniture and when I got inside the complex and found out that they wanted $6.50 for what passes for beer in the States, I understood the reasoning behind the tailgate parties.
The Monty Python crew summarized American beer the best. "What does American beer have in common with making love in a canoe? Its #@$%^ near water."

I think it would be cool to have rallies in the US but I think most of what you see are done as local events. My church actually did rallies for a few years. Of course, it's a mild version of what we see on TV.

Thanks, Stewartfan! And yeah, after reading the comments, I can actually understand why it isn't as popular - too many people are just too lazy to want to run around a track to watch an event! :P

It would be more popular if it was on the TV like in 2007 when I was out there and we won th X Games with Tanner !!