Indianapolis 500 Day: Talking About Cars With Big Spoilers

Today is the One-Hundredth Anniversary of the Indianapolis 500 race (despite the fact this is the 95th race).  Anyway, it's a pretty big deal because it's part of the Triple Crown of Motorsport, also including the Monaco GP and the 24 Hour LeMans.  No Daytona 500 because no one likes NASCAR (except for rednecks).

Some funny observations from this race.  You see there's a golf course around and inside the track with go-karts around so...there's people golfing during the race?  They are also playing that Go-Daddy "naked commercial shoot" again, recycled from the Superbowl three months ago...  Then some guy popped a tire so he just cruised into the pits and they just swapped it out.  Very nice.

EDIT: Oh, forgot this one part--a guy enters the pit.  Guys change four tires.  He drives off and a second later his rear left tire just pops off into the air.  Pit crew forgot to screw in the nuts.  Car's still driving with just three wheels, AMAZING!

But there's two stupid things going on.  One, this is the fifth race of the IndyCar season when you'd think it was the first...because they advertised the heck out of this race like they did with the Daytona 500 which is the first race of that season.  Second, it's the same day as the Monaco Grand Prix?  What the hell--I missed that???  Why???

But anyway, there's an Indy 500 Sega Model2 arcade racer released in 1995.  Now this game is nowhere near as popular as the rest of the Sega racer lineup, but it's a rugged little racer--one that certainly deserves more credit.  It has a 0% chance of receiving a sequel which is actually kind of sad.



Alright, so let's talk about more than just IndyCar...there's also Formula 1 which is basically the European version of IndyCar.  Now I'll tell you about this old game I used to play for the PC--Microprose Formula 1 Grand Prix--also known as World Circuit.  This game was released in 1992 and it was actually pretty sweet at the time.  EDIT: No, it wasn't just sweet, it was THE SHIZNIT at the time and still is today.



And then there's Virtua Racing.  The original arcade version also came out in 1992, but this is the PS2 version, part of the Sega Classics Collection.  This game's pretty good--it has six tracks and cars and is arguably the only decent game on the whole disc.  There's no telling if this is supposed to be Formula 1, IndyCar, CART, who cares...Sega racers know no bounds.



------------

And finally, my opinions on Formula 1 and IndyCar...(I know nothing about CART other than that it merged with IndyCar in 2008).  Well, racing is racing so I like them all.  IndyCar can get boring because the loops.  Formula 1 has all technical courses, some legends like Spa-Francorchamps and Suzuka while IndyCar has a couple of street courses.  Anyway, I presume Indy cars have slightly higher top speeds but who knows...they're all the same to me.  If you want to learn more about IndyCar & Formula 1, you can check out this site.

But there's something about Formula 1 that's strange.  For the last couple of F1 seasons I've checked out, there's no American drivers or tracks.  I'm not sure if it's because they have a hate-on for America...I certainly hope not.  Maybe it's because we're a bunch of rednecks who watch NASCAR...gimme a break.  At least IndyCar is kind enough to have races in Brazil, Japan, and Canada as well as a diverse crowd of drivers.  But there have been drivers who have won in F1 and IndyCar so there can't be that big of a difference between the two after all.  No, please don't take this as "I hate F1," cause I don't.

Either way, NASCAR is more popular than the two and that's a fact.  There's many more races in the NASCAR season than in the other two.  Maybe that's where all the good American drivers are--driving stock cars.  Love it or hate it, that's the way it is.  And don't give me that "NASCAR takes no skill" nonsense because Tony Stewart won three IndyCar races before his NASCAR career so you can win at both of them.  They hardly play IndyCar or F1 on TV (in America) so that's the breaks.  Check out Versus and Speed channel.

One of my favorite things about Formula 1 is The Chain music...it's awesome.  One of my most favorite songs of all time.



I could talk more about F1 but I'm done, that's it for now.  I also watched some World Rally Championship in Italy (on HD Theater) and there's the Coca-Cola 600 later, so good day for racing!!