Motorsport Question

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Inquisitor85

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I’m not sure if this is right place to ask but why do American motorsports series have prayers before the race?

I’ve seen this at both IndyCar and NASCAR events, but I’ve never seen or even heard of any FIA sanctioned series doing this.

I realise that they’re Christian but not Catholic prayers, but given that most of the forum is US based I thought maybe you could shed some light on this.
 
It brings in the Christian crowd and gives everyone a sense of fairness and safety before taking part in a dangerous activity
 
Inquisitor85 said:
I realise that they’re Christian but not Catholic prayers, but given that most of the forum is US based I thought maybe you could shed some light on this.
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Just chiming in to say that it’s typically the Archbishop of Indianapolis that delivers the invocation at the Indy 500 each year.
 
I don’t know if you live in the US, but you will see this kind of thing before sporting events, whether it be prayer or the National Anthem. It’s mostly a US and somewhat Canadian cultural thing I’ve yet to really see in many other parts of the world, certainly in the west. You will hear National Anthems before international games, but rarely when the game is national in many countries. FIA is of course quite international and F1 events happen all over the world with many different religions, so I doubt favoring one religion over another is a smart move and really not a thing most Europeans do.
 
The fan base of the sport in USA is very heavily Christian (more so than other sports), and as others said there is a high risk of death or serious injury in this sport, so prayers beforehand are a good idea.
 
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We don’t have NASCAR in western Canada but every sporting event I’ve ever been to begins with the national anthem. I’ve never understood why but sing along anyway. (they keep changing the words up here too, not that anyone knew them well to begin with)
 
They used to say prayers before high school football games before the courts got involved and ruled them a violation of separation of church and state (in cases of public schools). I guess its cultural. In the past, most communities would have been majority Christian, and a generic Christian prayer over the event just made sense.
 
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