Is NASCAR Really a Sport?

Anyone watching the ESPY's would have seen that NASCAR driver Jimmie Johnson was a nominee for Best Male Athlete. Well, Seattle Seahawks wide receiver Golden Tate wasn't really a big fan of that.

After he found out about the nomination, he said this on his Twitter account, "Jimmy johnson up for best athlete???? Um nooo..Driving a car does not show athleticism." 

He then went on to say how he could drive in NASCAR after a bit of practice, and it eventually ended up with Jimmie Johnson inviting him down to the track and Golden Tate apologizing, but for all intensive purposes, Golden Tate brings up a great question. Is NASCAR really a sport?

The guys drive around and stuff, but would you say they are athletes or are they just letting the car do the work for them? The car is the engineering marvel after all. 

Then we have to take into account all the work the crew does when taking the wheels off and putting them back on during pit stops and all the other mechanical work. 

They do drive at extremely fast speeds that are obviously not suitable on the road, but are they really ATHLETES???

I still have to say I believe they are athletes because driving in NASCAR is a skill. They take a lot of heat for being labeled as athletes, but I believe it's well deserved. They do put in the hard time and it's really not that easy to drive that kind of car. Any average Joe would need a tremendous amount of practice before he or she could even think of going on the track. 

Everyone just has to stop bashing the NASCAR guys. They have a tough job just like all other athletes do. Just because their bodies aren't taking the same type of physical pounding that a football player's body does, doesn't mean there isn't an art to it. That's where the driving comes into play.