I hear ya.. The race threads here at FR started that very year.. a race and a sporting culture died that day.
as far as ‘stock’, that’s a standing joke. there is no innovation when everyone uses the same cookie cutters .. driving CoTanks , running ecofuel. haaaa.
There is still one sport I love to watch: tractor & truck pulling.
Backyard engine builders put together Massey Furgesons, Perkins, Hemis, Cummins, Chevrolet big block engines with painstaking care, and the motors have to last about 15s at max RPM with a sled that just keeps getting heavier behind it.
Probably the only problem with tractor pulling, is that you want to cheer for everyone, for putting so much money on the line to entertain what in total, is a small demographic. I think I have only seen one guy hit superstar level there, the owner of the Silver Bullet. Beyond that, most people buy the coolest looking t-shirt, since most don’t single out a specific driver/team.