{"id":6085,"date":"2022-11-14T15:16:39","date_gmt":"2022-11-14T15:16:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/motorracingsports.com\/?p=6085"},"modified":"2022-11-16T02:33:25","modified_gmt":"2022-11-16T02:33:25","slug":"what-do-they-do-with-old-nascar-race-cars","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/motorracingsports.com\/what-do-they-do-with-old-nascar-race-cars\/","title":{"rendered":"What Do They Do with Old NASCAR Race Cars?"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Editorial credit: Roman Korotkov \/ Shutterstock.com<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NASCAR is not exactly a sport that people associate with frugality and solid economy. Many of the engines are used only for a single race. Cars get bumped, wrecked and smashed in event after event, and it all just seems a little bit wasteful<\/strong>\u2026on the surface, at least. The reality is quite different, in fact.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

NASCAR Race Cars are often sold as collectible items to fans or collectors once their racing life is over. However, if they are scrapped then all working items are stripped to be reused, from tires recycled into rubber for playgrounds, to the steel of the frame to be melted and reused nothing goes to waste. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

As it happens, when it comes to dealing with old and wrecked cars, NASCAR is actually a picture of sustainability and efficient practice. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

As one Florida news outlet \"Opens<\/a>once put it, \u201cOld race cars apparently never die. They just become new swing sets, golf clubs, and race cars.\u201d<\/strong> In today\u2019s blog, we\u2019ll be taking a closer look at what NASCAR does with its \u201cformer\u201d race cars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>No Component Wasted<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

To put it simply, what happens to NASCAR vehicles after they are retired for whatever reason or another is essentially one big story of recycling, refinement and reuse. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

We aren\u2019t saying that everything gets remade into future NASCAR parts, but it seems that just about every component of a NASCAR vehicle finds a meaningful afterlife when they are no longer needed by that particular team.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Not all cars are stripped for recycling purposes, of course, and we\u2019ll talk more about them further below. When it comes to the stripping down of NASCARs, however, it\u2019s an amazing thing that happens to the many components. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

A lot of the raw steel and other metals are sold to major scrap collectors near the race tracks, who process it back into new steel that can be sold on for any use that anyone has for it. Indeed, a portion of that steel might be purchased back by NASCAR makers who then put it into a brand-new car.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Non-metal parts are recycled, too. Tires, for example, can be cut up and have their rubber used to make mats, or for use as dust\/powder in playgrounds<\/strong> and sports ground surfaces. Even the oil and grease is recycled, sometimes refined for use by the military. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Most race tracks have drop off points where teams can quickly and easily dispose of oil and grease after each race, where it can be taken for recycling.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

You\u2019d be hard pressed to find a NASCAR team<\/a> that casually disposes of any car, in fact. Teams will only get rid of vehicles as an absolute last resort, and even then such a written-off car will actually be stripped for all it can offer in recycled materials and components. <\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other cases, it might even be that two good halves of two different cars are welded together to make a whole working vehicle, such is the desire of NASCAR teams<\/a> to get as much life as possible from each vehicle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"What
Editorial credit: OneLineStock.com \/ Shutterstock.com\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

<\/a>To Keep, or To Sell?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Some cars never get stripped down for parts, but find their way into the hands of drivers and other collectors who hold onto them for nostalgic reasons, or to build a premium collection of historic cars. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Among the most famous collectors in the NASCAR driver world is none other than Dale Earnhardt Jr., who to date has taken a number of old NASCAR vehicles to his farm in North Carolina — \u201cDirty Mo\u2019 Acres.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Earnhardt Jr\u2019s collection mostly consists of old cars, often winning vehicles such as Jeff Gordon\u2019s Daytona-500-winning Chevy from 1997,<\/strong> that are now sitting and gathering moss in the dense woods around his farm. You can check out images of old NASCAR here\"Opens<\/a><\/strong>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s really more of a graveyard than a showroom, but it\u2019s not the strangest thing that has happened to any car. Jacksonville.com once reported how drivers had approached local scrap merchants to have their own cars crushed into cubes that they wanted to use as coffee tables or other furniture.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

We have an article on NASCAR’s environmental impacts<\/a> and how they deal with this here on the site. you can check in ou on the link here or on the image below. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Is NASCAR Racing Bad For The Environment?<\/a><\/blockquote>