WHAT IS NASCAR?

The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (Nascar) is the largest motorsports body in the US, and has grown to become the second most popular professional sport in terms of television ratings inside the country, ranking only behind American football. It holds 17 of the top 20 attended sporting events in the US, and has 75 million fans who purchase over $2 billion in annual licensed product sales. In other words, it's a big, big, business.

Nascar's roots are in the south-east US, in North Carolina and Florida, where moonshine bootleggers would often modify their cars in order to create a faster, nimbler vehicle to evade the law.

Nowadays, the largest Nascar tracks can accommodate more than 170,000 people in the stands and infield. Although its support has spread far wider than its original Southern base, Nascar is still widely identified with white, Southern values: patriotism, political conservatism and support for the armed forces. Confederate flags are much in evidence in the crowds, and the sport still has a problem with the lack of racial diversity among its drivers, according to Joe Menzer's book, The Wildest Ride: A History of Nascar (or, How a Bunch of Good Ol' Boys Built a Billion-Dollar Industry out of Wrecking Cars).

In December 2003, at a reception for Nascar at the White House, George W Bush had this to say: "It's easy to figure out why the sport's so popular - the competition is intense, the drivers and their crews are skilful, the finishes are oftentimes dramatic. Yet the values long held by the drivers endure. It's one of the things I like most about Nascar. I also appreciate the strong support Nascar's drivers continue to give to our armed forces, reminding your millions of fans that America's heroes are the men and women who defend our nation."

Having conquered America, Nascar is currently aiming to go global, running races in Canada, Mexico, Australia and Japan. A key part of this strategy is getting Nascar-themed stories into Hollywood movies: last year's Lindsay Lohan vehicle Herbie: Fully Loaded was the first rotten fruit of that campaign; Pixar's Cars the second, and the upcoming Will Ferrell comedy Talledega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby the third. While Cars features nods to Formula One and European audiences with a cameo appearance by Michael Schumacher, the film is packed with references to Nascar, including several voice appearances by star commentators and drivers. Whether this campaign succeeds where so many other American sports-themed movies have failed in attracting an international audience remains to be seen.