Nascar and tourism : Analyses based on a scoping review of the literature

Abstract

Many countries, provinces and cities around the world use major sporting events as a catalyst for tourism development. The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing (NASCAR), through its championships and racing events, has for many years, chosen to integrate itself into capitalist and neoliberal tourism and economic models. As a motorsport industry with strong historical, economic and media roots in American culture and certain values, NASCAR generates a myriad of tourism impacts on the territories hosting these races. This study, therefore, aims, through a scoping review of the scientific literature, to take stock of the scientific knowledge produced on NASCAR and its tourism impacts. This approach allowed the analysis of 28 scientific articles in depth and to draw several analytical conclusions. First of all, an observation was noted regarding a very strong involvement of sponsors and the media in this industry, which undeniably contributes to the creation of forms of sporting imagery around the teams and drivers). These sporting imaginaries undoubtedly colour the partisan cultures and even the fan communities that are created and evolve around and within this sporting ecosystem. The study of the tourist spin-offs of NASCAR has been studied in the scientific literature but appears to be rather limited or circumscribed, and must, therefore, be widely developed empirically.