If the V8 Supercars can travel to the United States and put on a points paying race, why can't or why doesn't NASCAR leave the United States with it's top series for a points paying race?
But is there a market for NASCAR to go overseas?
NASCAR does have a reputation for being popular with rednecks, and as being boring oval-based racing. Now, whether or not that is representative of the truth is beside the point - the fact that it has that reputation in the first place is a serious barrier an international race would have to overcome. There are a handful of oval circuits outside the States that could handle NASCAR (Motegi, Lausitz and Rockingham all spring to mind), but if there is no market for those races, then there is no point in spending all that money setting it up an flying everyone out there.
V8 Supercars is coming to America for two reasons: firstly, the organisers feel that there is a market for the category. After all, there isn't much in the way of circuit-based touring cars in America when oval-based stock cars are so popular. And secondly, V8 Supercars has saturated its domestic market. The sport continues to grow, but there are no more circuits that could host the racing. They've either been bulldozed (like Oran Park), are too small (like Mallala), are incredibly expensive and/or unpopular (like Hamilton) or are in markets where there is no real forecast for growth (like Hampton Downs; one race in New Zealand - not at Pukekohe - is thought to be enough).
So V8 Supercars Australia really have four options: 1) they can start building more permanent circuits, but this is very, very expensive and will take years for them to be ready while in the meantime, the category stagnates; 2) they can start introducing more and more street circuits to the calendar, but between Adelaide, Homebush Bay, Townsville, Surfers Paradise and Hamilton, it is felt that the series already has enough; 3) they can start visiting circuits twice in one year, and while this hasn't really been explored much, I can't imagine it would be too popular; or 4) they can start to push into overseas markets. They're going to Austin, and there is also talk that the category could visit Mexico City, the Philippines (there's an old US Air Force base that has been converted into a racing circuit), India, Singapore (they've been variously rumoured to be a support bill for Formula 1, or racing on a purpose-built circuit at Changi that never seems to have been constructed) and even a street circuit in Hong Kong.
Obviously, they feel that there is enough of a market overseas to justify these moves. V8 Supercars is broadcast (albeit with two-week delays) in America, and Bathurst was broadcast live last year (and I've heard they might do it again this year). Even with Marcos Ambrose racing in NASCAR and getting a reputation as one of the best road course racers the category has ever seen (at least, that's the way it's being reported down here), I just can't imagine that NASCAR would make the same impact into the Australian sporting consciousness.
