My “shakes fist at clouds” moment: use of “CART” and “NASCAR”

[BillGuy]

I'm posting this because…
1) I suspect a fair amount of people from outside North America may genuinely not know.
2) I kind of die a little inside each time I see these names used for the wrong thing.

CART and NASCAR were/are the names of sanctioning bodies: Championship Auto Racing Teams and National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing. They are not the names of the cars that compete in the races run by those organizations.

Refering to the cars as CARTs or NASCARs is like saying “The current FIAs are too big for Monaco” or “I'm going to see the TOCAs at Brands this weekend.” You can surely figure out the meaning with next to zero effort, but it's simply not what the cars are called.

No, I'm not going to follow people around the forum here playing motorsport grammar police. Additionally, I fully recognize the NASCAR and CART acronyms are of course “just begging for it” to be used incorrectly.

In all seriousness though, I'm a 52 year old American who has followed motorsports for as long as I can remember. The cars that do/did race under these sactioning bodies have never been referred to as CARTs or NASCARs here in their native land. At least not by materials from the sancioning bodies themselves, TV broadcasts of the races, or motorsport and automotive-specific media.

Now if you'll pardon me, I have to go shout at some cumulus clouds.

 

[jgf]

National Association of Spec Car Auto Racing; though I prefer NASCARE - National Association of Spec Car Auto Racing Entertainment.

The term "stock car" has had no relevance for decades. Hand made tube frames, spec engines, hand formed, template controlled aluminum bodies (with headlights painted on, what a crock). About thirty years ago Rusty Wallace switched from a Pontiac to a Ford; did the team build a new car? No, just unbolted one body and bolted on another. By that logic I can remove the body from an old VW beetle and bolt on a fiberfab F-40 body and claim to be driving a Ferrari.

But they further confuse the issue by changing the name of the series every couple of years as major sponsors change. Then refuse to admit it ever had any other name. Once heard an announcer state Richard Petty was "a seven time Sprint Cup champion"; Petty was never a Sprint Cup champ, he was a Grand National champ and a Winston Cup champ.