Race car drivers are held to a ridiculous double standard

Race car drivers do not get enough credit

When race car drivers strap into their race cars, they are racing, non-stop, for typically between an hour and half and four hours depending on whether you are talking about a NASCAR Cup Series, IndyCar or Formula 1 race. Races can easily be longer than NBA, NFL, NHL and MLB games are even not including the many parts of those games that contain no action whatsoever.

Yes, there are caution flag periods and safety car periods in races, but even during these periods, there is still a lot going on — after all, the drivers are still…driving — and the time spent under these periods as opposed to the time actually spent racing is minuscule.

Even though they certainly are not going “around and around and around the same circle over and over again” and no two tracks are alike, yes, in each race, race car drivers are going around and around the same track over and over again regardless of whether the race is an oval race or a road or street course race.

But why does this thought process disqualify them from being athletes in the eyes of millions of people, especially when basketball, football and hockey players are considered athletes when all they do is go back and forth throughout their games in much smaller venues for much shorter amounts of time and baseball players are considered athletes when all they do is run around in circles throughout their games in much smaller venues for much shorter amounts of time?