Imagine driving for six hours, with the windows rolled up, with the heat of a Florida’s 90-degree day pumping into the car and losing up to three pounds of sweat in that time.

This is what racecar drivers have to go through every Saturday and Sunday for up to 10 months a year, and yet some people have the audacity to say that auto racing, such as Formula 1 and IndyCar, is not a sport.

The definition of a sport, according to Dictionary.com, is an athletic activity requiring skill or physical prowess which is often of a competitive nature.

In sports participants need things like fast reflexes, endurance and good conditioning, which is the ability to focus on an activity for a period of time. This is true for all sports, including auto racing. If racecar drivers do not have these skills in a racecar, it could result in a serious accidents, injuries or even fatalities.

In racing, the drivers are pushed to limits that other athletes can’t even relate to. Unlike in other sports, racecar drivers have to constantly have concentration. In basketball, like many sports for example, there are timeouts, and sometimes and players are even on the bench. In racing the drivers are constantly going for up to six hours, not in 10 to 15 minute time spurts.

Like other sports, racing also has a coach, or a crew and crew chief. The crew in the sport of auto racing helps the driver, who cannot do it alone. They have crew chiefs who are the ones who really get these racecars into the victory lane. The crew is in charge of the strategy part of the sport, the equivalent to the coach.

Every aspect that qualifies basketball, football and such as sports qualifies auto racing as well.  It seems to this reporter that auto racing qualifies as a sport just as any other sport in the world. So, let’s celebrate racecar driving as the sport it is and leave the misconceptions behind.