Quote:
Originally Posted by Mystery
I reckon this is the problem. Indycar needs to come down either as a national series wanting to evoke American emotion, or as a genuine international series with world-class (I.e primarily non-North-American) drivers. It can't do both.
It then follows the 500 is a big American race or an international sideshow. Again it cannot be both.
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It's a chicken and egg cycle that Indycar is too weak to break, atm. What drives the internationalisation of Indycar is money or the mirage of money. There's a scarcity of money for racing domestically - or at least NASCAR hoovers it all up - so Indycar is dragged abroad looking for cash sometimes towards oriental mirages like that phantom Chinese race and to Europe to get wealthy drivers. South America is closer to home but Indycar cannot live on South Americans alone.
Indycar needs to be an American series with a strident American identity and they need to retain that American philosophy. It's a critical ingredient for the series and, just to add to that, if the American character was protected, Indycar's international stature would blossom too. Indycar as just another cosmopolitan single-make championship with plastic-looking cars, it just doesn't stand out.