The popularity of motorsports amongst fans in the United States continues to grow year-over-year.  While NASCAR is still the king, an ever increasing number of racing fans are beginning to appreciate the other styles of auto racing offered by the IndyCar circuit as well as the even more intriguing American Le Mans Series.  There are several reasons why these other racing circuits are garnering increased attention.  So put on your race hat, and let’s review these reasons together:

Not Just Left Turns

With the exception of one or two race tracks (Infineon Raceway in Napa, California being one of them), NASCAR races consist of nothing but a few hundred laps of stock cars chasing each other around an oval and making nothing but left turns. In fairness, this can still be pretty exciting when these guys are going pedal-to-the-metal at 200 miles per hour.  However, IndyCar races feature much more diverse race tracks with both left and right turns, as well as sharp hairpin turns that force drivers to employ different angles and braking and acceleration strategies.

More Upscale and Diverse Vehicles:

Unlike NASCAR, where there are very tight restrictions on race cars that make all of the vehicles very uniform, regardless of the make and model, a race series like the American Le Mans Series offers a cornucopia of different race classes. In a typical ALMS race, you can expect to see race cars made by Porsche, Ferrari, BMW, and Jaguar, all with different body types and features. For  upscale racing fans, who are more likely to wear Porsche clothing like a polo shirt than say, a Dale Earnhardt Jr. headband from Wal-Mart, this style of racing is much more appealing.

Street Racing

Ever wondered what it would be like to race around downtown city streets and 140MPH? Well, you get a sense of it when you watch races like the Long Beach Grand Prix which transforms the downtown area into a high-speed adrenaline rush of racing action for an entire weekend once a year. While going to a stadium raceway like Daytona offers itw own merits, seeing the streets of a city you live and work in every day transform into a racing track is especially intriguing.

Regardless of what type of racing you prefer, it’s clear that auto racing is on the rise in the US. Racing memorabilia sales are on the rise, and with a growing number of options for race fans depending on what style of racing they prefer, expect the trend to only continue.