Yes, it is a sport.

"There are only three real sports: bullfighting, car racing and mountain climbing. All the others are mere games." -Ernest Hemingway

Does it matter if it's a sport or not? If you enjoy it and can make a living at it, what's to complain about? I say more power to ya!

My sport ate your sport for breakfast.

 IMHO, a sport involves physical prowess and competition.  A game requires only competition.  Therefore, poker, which requires no specialized physical skills, is a game but not a sport.

Video games are an odd middle ground.  Personally, I find the new game controllers to be baffling.  I grew up with a joystick and one or two buttons.  Ten buttons and an extra "D Pad" on top of two joystick-like gadgets are too much for my Pac-Man brain to handle.  I'm happy to admit that video games require a certain amount of physical dexterity.  Does this make them sports?  Somehow, my brain rebels against the idea, but I can't quite find a clear reason why.

Perhaps sports are only those competitive games which require physical prowess *and* involve real, as opposed to simulated, tasks.  This seems kind of like an ad-hoc rationalization designed to exclude video games, though.  Then again, video games didn't exist when the cultural concept of sport developed.  The only possible classification for them is an ad hoc one.

You know, when it comes right down to it, I think I object to calling something a sport when nothing more than playing the game will lead to the player being in worse physical shape than not playing.

... so... every contact sport ever created?

oh sure, he would have been in better physical shape if he didnt play the match where the linebacker decided to snap his spine in 2!

I don't think literally sitting on your ass can be considered a sport. You derive no fitness benefit from it, and you don't get to slap a teammate's ass when they win, so I don't think it is a sport.

Well, auto-racing is considered a sport. Golfing is considered a sport. Curling is considered a sport. Hell, fucking croquet is considered a sport.

Anyone care to give me an estimate as to the amount of physical excercize one gets out of these activities?

In fairness, most sports suck balls anyway. I don't particularly care if my hobby falls into that category anyway.

Auto racing does require physical ability - it gets well over 100° in those cars (no AC) and they're wearing heavy suits. Plus no bathroom breaks for the entire race (at least 3 hours in NASCAR) and dealing with the g-forces in the turns. Not something an out of shape person could do.

Those European ones are gay. NASCAR is for real men. If you think you can do it, go for it. NASCAR drivers make millions if they're succesful. I love NASCAR. It and NFL football are my favorite sports. Also like Hockey and Baseball. European sports are the wussy racing, soccer and tennis. GAY!!!!!

Actually I should say wimpy. Nothing wrong with gay people but those sports suck. To be fair NASCAR drivers wouldn't succeed in those racing types but the ones who came from there to NASCAR don't do very well either (see Juan Pablo Montoya. )

Well, did you see Dale Earnheart's spectacular crash (the one he walked away from, not the one that killed him)? That was pretty nuts.

Also: I have a burning feeling that when/if Hamby comes back to this thread, he'll cast the whole lot of us into a fire for discussing auto racing at all.

I'm sure there was a sexual health survey done a few years back that found straight men are more interested in the act of anal sex than gay men.  I'm throwing that out as pure hearsay because I can't remember when or where it was... I'll see if I can find it.

Before the Americans storm in here and get outraged about your slight against their national pastime, I feel I have to act as Devil's Advocate   I'm a rugby fan (shame about my national team) but I'm also a fan of American Football and I'll defend the padding.  In the American game most of the players are guaranteed snap, high-impact collisions to their shoulders and heads.  More often that not you'll have two 300+lb dudes slamming into your shoulders 5 or 6 times in a few minutes.  I don't care how fit you are, that's going to do some damage.  I'd want the padding.

Don't get me wrong, Rugby's hardcore* but I think the volume of high-velocity impacts to major body parts and/or close to the head is much, much lower, so there's not as much need for that level of protection.

* My favourite moment of the last world cup was one of the Aussies complaining because he was facing a medical substitution and wanted to stay on.  What was his problem?  He was bleeding from the eyes.  I'm a huge football fan (soccer to you 'Mericans) but at that point even I was calling every footballer under the sun a nancy boy

The NFL is pretty strict about steroids - baseball hadn't been until recently. NASCAR is even supposed to start testing more (not that muscle mass would be a real advantage in racing - in fact it would likely be detrimental - more weight = slower car speed and less room inside.) Even with the helmets and padding, it's rare to see an NFL game without someone carried off the field injured.