Auto racing’s life-and-death battle for fans, ratings, and relevance

This Road & Track article by Marshall Pruett talks about the dying sport of auto racing because of the aging fan base. However, it fails to propose what the real solution is. The only solution, and we do mean the only solution, is to engage the youth of this country in the sport. And we mean put them behind the wheel so they can compete at a very affordable level.

The only way to do that is to get go-kart racing to be a recognized sport in high schools and colleges. But the power brokers of the sport are not visionary enough, or care enough, to make it happen. They prefer to make all the excuses in the world rather than address the root cause. They're rich and happy.

And until they do the sport will continue to decline. You don't need to look past IndyCar's grand finale at Fontana with 6,000 in attendance and 0.18 TV rating to know that putting lipstick on a pig isn't going to fix the problem.