LAS VEGAS (KTNV) — A NASCAR race is quite different from an F1 race.
There are many contrasts between these two motor sports, so we'll stick to the major ones.
Let's start with the biggest and most obvious difference: the cars.
NASCAR
NASCAR vehicles are considered stock cars that resemble a normal car that we would drive.
Every car is built almost the exact same, so it’s all dependent on the driver’s skill to win, making the race winner hard to predict.
F1 cars are entirely different
They are much lighter and faster than stock cars, don’t look anything like the cars we drive, and teams have to build the cars from the ground up.
The teams that spend the most money on the aerodynamics of the cars often win the most races.....take Red Bull as this season’s example, having taken first place in every single race.
So Formula One is as much, If not more of an engineering competition than a racing competition.
Another big difference are the tracks.
NASCAR mostly has oval tracks, where they will only have to turn one direction.
The races also mostly take place in North America, though there have been some races held in other countries or are on a speedway.
F1 tracks, however, come with so many different twists and turns and none of them are identical in the least bit.
In fact some tracks, like the Las Vegas and Monaco Grand Prix, takes place on the roads we drive on.
Now let’s get to our guilty pleasure of racing: crashes.
In NASCAR, slightly bumping a car to overtake them is common, and sometimes encouraged. In F1, crashing into a car is banned and frowned upon because of how fast and how much less protection the cars have.
One more key difference is how long races last.
To put it simply, NASCAR is a marathon and F1 is a sprint.
The average NASCAR race can last up to three hours, whereas F1 races last 2 hours max.
If there is one similarity though, it’s that both cars can fly, and come November, Las Vegas is going to see first hand how fast F1 cars can go.
