Books | Sports

March 1, 2010

NASCAR in the Rear-View Mirror

Sports Illustrated editor Mark Bechtel tells Gelf about his new meta-history of NASCAR, an American art form.

David Downs

NASCAR divides friends from enemies, kin from outsiders. It's jingoism incarnate, and a living parody of the parody that is Talladega Nights. But it's also a distinctly American art form, on par with jazz or Chicago blues, rooted in immigration and desperation, and full of contradictions like illiterates who can intuit fluid dynamics. It's pastoral the way few things in the US truly can claim to be.







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Article by David Downs

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