I saw people arguing online about NASCAR being called “gay” by some fans. Sounded weird to me, so I decided to dig into it myself.
First Step: Hearing the Buzz
Kept seeing comments, mostly in old forum threads people linked, or random tweets getting shared again. Stuff like “haha NASCAR is gay” or “only gay folks like circle tracks”. Felt like a dumb insult people throw around. Needed to know where it really came from. Was it a few haters, or did lots of supporters actually say it?
Started simple. Typed stuff like “why is nascar called gay” right into the search bar. Got nothing solid. Just more arguments and jokes. No real history explaining it. Figured I had to go deeper, like finding actual fan discussions from years back.
The Deep Dive
This is where it got messy. Searched through fan forums archives – the ones that looked like they were made in the 90s. Painful to navigate. Found a bunch of dead image links and broken threads. Kept at it.
Then I hit some gold. Found some old Usenet groups (yeah, that old) talking NASCAR in the late 90s/early 2000s. Saw the term popping up way more than I expected.
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What stood out?
- It wasn’t usually serious hatred about homosexuality.
- It was mostly casual, stupid trash talk fans used against each other. Especially guys arguing about drivers.
- Some fans used it to insult the sport itself when they thought it got “soft” – like safety rules changing or tracks changing layouts. Calling that “gay” was their way of saying it was weak or stupid.
- Also saw some fans use it as a general insult within the community towards folks they disagreed with. “Oh you like that driver? You’re gay.” Dumb playground stuff.
Seemed like it mostly came from this rough, sometimes crude, fan culture vibe back then. Some folks used that word constantly for anything they thought was lame or weak – including parts of NASCAR they didn’t like, or other fans. Not cool, but that felt like the “real story” behind a lot of those comments supporters made over the years.
Checked some old racing news sites too. Found opinion pieces complaining about fan arguments getting too personal and insults flying, including that word being tossed around casually on message boards and chat rooms.
Putting It Together
Took me hours wading through ancient internet junk. Felt like being an archaeologist digging through digital dirt.
The “gay” insult thing?
- Roots: Largely casual trash talk among fans, especially in online communities circa late 90s/2000s.
- Targets: Mostly used against other fans, disliked drivers, or rule changes they thought were “softening” the sport.
- Tone: Usually dismissive and crude, not necessarily deep hate, but definitely ignorant and homophobic slang tossed around without much thought.
- Legacy: Those old comments floating around now get reused or pointed to as “proof”, but the original context was mostly dumb fan arguments.
Kinda bummed me out, honestly. So much pointless nastiness. Didn’t find one big event, just a pattern of careless talk used as a lazy insult within the culture back in the day. That’s the “real story” I dug up. Makes way more sense now, even if it’s pretty grim.