No NASCAR races in 3-D anytime soon

The NCAA Final Four in a few weeks will be presented by CBS in 3-D coverage for theatergoers. Fox has produced a 3-D Bowl Championship Series football game, and Major League Baseball's All-Star game will be in 3-D carried by DirecTV. ESPN presented the Ohio State-Southern California football game in 3-D and showed it in a handful of theaters and is expected to launch a 3-D channel soon. So could NASCAR end up in 3-D?

It's possible but there are several hurdles. Network executives from NASCAR's television partners have recently said they couldn't predict when there would be a 3-D production of a NASCAR race. The biggest hurdle is trying to get it to the fan base. Fox Sports Chairman David Hill wonders if enough NASCAR fans would have 3-D sets to be able to watch a 3-D production.

"HD sets have not reached critical mass yet and folks that just bought an HD set, they've got to turn around and buy a 3-D," Hill says. "There's a whole bunch of questions all to do with the chicken and the egg. So the answers [to NASCAR in 3-D questions] are we will have equipment to do a 3-D race, yes it will look fantastic and I don't believe anyone will be able to see it." ESPN Vice President of Motorsports Rich Feinberg says he is fascinated by 3-D and helped make a 3-D movie last summer at the X Games.

"There are some technical challenges that need to be overcome," Feinberg says. "The size and scope of these productions in terms of the number of cameras and all the stuff with the pit cams and crew-cam guys, that technology doesn't exist today for 3-D. "What we want to do in working with NASCAR is when we get there, we want to make sure we can do it right. There is a whole lot of technical knowledge that has to be acquired and experimented and tested in order to do that. We don't serve anybody, including our NASCAR fans, by doing a show that is underwhelming in 3-D because of the technical limitations. We've got to wait until we're ready." Scene Daily