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Comment by PraetorianGourd | Hacker News Reader

Absolutely none of the appeal is anticipating a crash. If someone claims to be a race fan and likes the crashes, they are by definition not a race fan as there is no racing in a crash.

I remember watching when Jules Bianchi had his fatal accident and I remember where I was when I read of Antoine Hubert had his fatal crash and I remember watching Romain Grosjean somehow walk away from an incredibly violent crash. Each one made me seriously consider giving up on the sport, but the racers racing and each crash has led to massive safety improvements.

I hope there is never another fatal or injury accident in motor racing. In F1 there was a long gap between Senna and Bianchi, let's hope the next gap never ends.

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To be honest, when I was very young, there was always the thrill something unexpected might happen on TV, and crashes were part of that. But this has quickly faded. I only dimly remember the Bianchi incident, at the time watching I didn't think too much of it. The Grosjean incident though was really something, and I got similar vibes a few weeks ago with the Schumacher (Mick) incident where he wasn't shown for a short time

The Bianchi incident was so odd and I've only (accidentally) saw one video of it since as far as I know, no broadcast camera captured the incident. But F1 learned and red flags seem more common now and they don't race with reduced visibility.

Agreed about Mick as well, its always terrible when they don't show replays for a while. But I also think that fact alone contradicts the OP, they won't broadcast a serious crash.

> If someone claims to be a race fan and likes the crashes, they are by definition not a race fan as there is no racing in a crash.

That's true in open wheel racing like F1, but in stock car racing like NASCAR, contact and wrecks are an accepted part of the sport and are definitely a component of the race and strategy.

That is fair, I admit I'm mainly an open-wheel fan. But as far as I understand, closed-wheel racing cars are more robust to side-swipe/rubbing incidents, which in open-wheel often forces a spin at best and breaks suspension at worst.

Yeah, they're intrinsically safer vehicles but obviously much slower and less maneuverable. A lot of the r&d over the last 20 years has been to make these wrecks relatively safe, and they've done a good job with it.

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