I have always thought of NASCAR as being rather useless. It provides very little in the way of advancing engine technology, does even less for suspension technology, and the cars keep turning in the same direction. I suppose it was less so back when really stock cars were raced in Stock Car Racing. Back when Ford shoveled their 429 engine into the Mustang so they could claim that it was a production engine, when homologation specials like the Ford Talladega, the Dodge Charger 500 (flush-mounted grille, fixed headlights, flush-mounted rear window... why wasn't the production Charger like this?) the Dodge Charger Daytona (rather more extreme than the 500, especially with the pointed beak and the grille) and the Plymouth Road Runner Superbird (Daytona Chargers with Plymouth and Road Runner badges) These days, one has to go to the SCCA for nationwide American production-based racing. The Trans-Am series seems to be more production-based these days after years of tube cars and pushrod V-8s; this caused by the dominance of Audi and Ferrari with their turbo engines in the late '80s. I was partial to the Ferrari F40s in the Trans-Am series because they were based on production F40s, although production F40s were/are about as expensive to buy as Trans-Am race cars... 1 new of