One of the great things about NASCAR is how old school it really is, and yet, so advanced. They have all the latest in gadgets, computers and tools, but the cars don’t have the kind of onboard computers found in formula 1.

The 1950s-era technologies used in the ’stock cars’ driven in nasar, have little resemblance to modern day street vehicles. Modern NASCAR vehicles share very few attributes of the commercial models with which they are associated; for example, the production Chevrolet Monte Carlo weighs nearly the same as the NASCAR Chevy Monte Carlo, but the NASCAR vehicle has a cast-iron eight-cylinder engine driving the rear wheels, whereas the production car has an aluminum alloy front-wheel-drive V8. Also, NASCAR vehicles continue to use carburetors instead of the now-common fuel injection, and they also use a 2-valve per cylinder configuration operated by a single cam-in-block using push rods, instead of the double overhead cams operating 4-valves per cylinder that are common on production cars.

This is a modern condition: when NASCAR first started nearly 60 years ago, the race cars were substantially similar to production vehicles, but the safety and performance needs of modern racing have required custom-built race cars. Supporters also note that the strict equipment rules place less emphasis on getting a technological advantage, and thus more emphasis on individual driver skill. All of NASCAR’s series also run on spec tires made by certain tire manufacturers such as Goodyear and American Racer. Some suggest that this discourages tire competition and development, which they further assert has led to the absence of rain/wet condition tires, and to races (such as the 2005 UAW-GM Quality 500) where tires seem to self-destruct.