[ldd]

This may be a meta answer, but I think it's not really about the race most of the time.

It's either about childhood memories of seeing it, remembering your friends that are far away, or having deep technical knowledge about the cars or something like that.

I used to think I didn't really like sports until I started going to bars to see Starcraft II matches. I still have good memories about it and my friends back then.

And sure, some sports have more action than others, but at the end of the day, people have feelings and sports can deeply affect people. That's not a very logical answer, but I hope others can vouch that it sorta makes sense.

[Icathian]

This really resonates with me. I never understood why my mom would spend whole sundays with football on, but have probably watched 20 hours of worlds for league of legends in the last two weeks. I play with my friends and have for 10 years, it's part of who I am. It seems silly, I imagine, but it seems like it must be the same thing for me as it always was for her.