I know outside of the US oval racing is considered the shit stain of the motorsports world and I really don't get why. The first complaint is that well... the tracks are just ovals. Many people think that it's boring just watching cars going in a circle and that would be true if every lap was a 200mph parade lap like most F1 races.
See the big draw to oval tracks is the fact that cars actually pass each other... a lot. The record as of 2011 for clean overtakes in a F1 race is 85 at Turkey in NASCAR the record for passes for the lead is 88 at Talladega also in 2011 (on average for 2011 there were 3,666 passes per race). The reason for such a difference between the 2 is the of couse the tracks. On a road course there is typically one narrow groove where drivers need run in order to go fast. On an oval track however the groove ranges from 2-6 car widths therefore seeing cars go 3-4 wide often is a common sight.
This will not only increase passes but also last lap passes/ photo finishes. It's common for a NASCAR and IndyCar season to have say 5 or 6 photo finishes/last lap pass.
Now in stock car racing's case this is also helped by the fact that the cars re full bodied. This means they can beat, bang, and race side by side without actually crashing. This isn't to say they never crash ohhhhh no they crash alright and they crash BIG. A NASCAR crash can involve close to 30 cars and why is that? Because they actually race close together therefore more cars will be involved. Hell I even think NASCAR does better road course racing than F1.
In all I think all forms of motorsport are fantastic. NASCAR, F1, IndyCar, V8 supercars, Rally, hell even MotoGP, if I see its on I will watch it. I just hate that NASCAR gets all this flack for being "boring" even though it embodies what a motorsport should have, GREAT RACING!
Here are some video's you guy should watch:
Just happen yesterday (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Wp1klmtsWQA)
27 car Pile up in NASCAR (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1VIzm3rwkw)
Close finish in NASCAR with my favorite driver (#9) (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Z1VNK97C-g)
2010 at Montreal (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9k09O7TTG4o)
