"Sport, Spectacle, and NASCAR Nation" critically examines the complex intersections of sport, consumer culture, and contemporary U.S. politics. Based on extensive ethnographic research, the authors give a first-hand account of NASCAR's recent ascent into the North American sporting mainstream. Along the way, they explore the unique bond between NASCAR and conservative U.S. political movements--and their various Southern, Christian, militaristic, free-market alignments. Sport, Spectacle, and NASCAR Nation is a must read for students and scholars in cultural studies, sport studies, education, sociology, and political sciences, as well as those interested in promoting a less divisive sporting future.

Sport, Spectacle, and NASCAR Nation critically interrogates stockcar racing's ascendance into the upper-echelon of the North American sporting popular. While most contributions to the public discourse gloss over NASCAR's exclusively white racial identity politics, its underlying patriarchal gender politics, its overtly conservative political commitment, its hyper-Christian orthodoxy, and its omnipresent commercialism, this book connects the dots and critically analyzes the problematic nature of this non-natural, strategically-orchestrated sporting spectacle.