Brian France might be on to something here. I think NASCAR can really thrive overseas but the sport will have to change a bit. I agree with this point:
"I don't think that works in the long term. You have to build stars who are from Europe, teams that are from Europe and get manufacturers who have an interest in Europe," he said
Nor would NASCAR try to displace Formula 1, which France said was totally different. However, NASCAR would likely have to incorporate some road racing as opposed to racing on tracks like in the United States.
The Europeans like their road courses and rally racing. I think they may need to allow more manufacturers into the sport to get any kind of European recognition. That means BMW and Porsche may need to submit bids for NASCAR cars in the near future. I don't think the American auto-dealers want to compete with these guys though. So European expansion might be kind of hard in the near term.
However Japan would seem to be a great place to start their expansion. Toyota is almost ready to put their car into the mix in 2007. If this new car model is successful then they should think about having a race in Japan. The Japanese seem to like amateur racing quite a bit so I can see a NASCAR race that is run on the streets of Tokyo be quite popular. They can run it similar to a road course like that one level in the PS2 game Gran Turismo. Getting the cars to Japan may be pricey but I think it could be quite a boon for the sport.
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