Five reasons why NASCAR diecast cars are addicting
By Joseph Wolkin
@JosephNASCAR
Fun for everyone
Diecast cars aren't just collectibles, they are also a lot of fun for children. Unwrapping diecast cars for the holidays gives young fans an unforgetable smile. Adults can have fun with them too. At Daytona, fans have the opportunity to take a fishing pole from above the garage stalls and if they're lucky, drivers will sign them. What other sport does that happen in? Drivers also spend countless hours signing diecast cars. Even though it makes them more expensive, it is safe to say that giving someone an autographed diecast will make anyone happy for the holiday season.
Diecast cars can create a museum in a room
As someone who has been collecting diecast for seven years, it is truly the most addicting habit there is. Once a person buys one car, they just simply can't stop. Over the course of a year, fans can buy hundreds of cars. Yeah, there goes your children's College funds thats for sure. However, they can actually be worth wild considering the fact that once someone has a few hundred diecast cars, they'll have a miniture in-house museum.
Diecast cars save rare memories
Fans know that having race-win diecast is something to brag about. It helps the fans get closer to the sport, making them feel like they are apart of their favorite driver or team when a momentus occasion occurs. Looking at the list of the most popular diecast, two of the top-ten cars are rare schemes, that being Dale Earnhardt Jr.'s race win version from Michigan as well as Brad Keselowski's championship winning car.
Diecast cars are just simply one part of being a fan
Buying diecast cars at races is fun in general. It gives fans an opportunity to be involved in something larger than themsevles, well in some way at least. The process into making the cars is interesting, but being a fan is even more interesting. Everyone loves to buy this type of merchandise for some odd reason. However, not many people know how or why they get addicted to it. Well think of it like this, in a few years, they can be passed down to children, grandchildren, etc. That in of itself could mean more to people than anything else.
Diecast cars become more than just a collectible
Diecast cars are pretty cool. It may seem like a waste of money when first collecting them, but after a while, fans begin to realize that it's an investment and like any investment, they must keep sticking to it. In time, diecast cars get to be addictive. Once a person buys one, they just can't stop. Maybe it's the bright colors, special paint schemes or simply just having a slight resemblance of the cars that their favorite drivers use on the racetrack. No matter what, it is simply just the process that most, if not all NASCAR fans go through.
via Lionel NASCAR Collectibles website
NASCAR fans are crazy as it is. With the way the sport has panned out over the past 65-years, NASCAR has become one of the greatest marketing schemes of all time. It isn’t a bad thing, not even close, but it has made Americans spend thousands of dollars per year on NASCAR-related items.
A few years ago, QVC had a show titled “For Race Fans Only.” The show was a hit for race fans due to the amount of rare diecast the company sold. Gold. Chrome. Silver. Sheet metal. You name it, they made it. Dan Hughes hosted the show and was able to book top marketing drivers such as Dale Earnhardt Sr. and his son, Dale Earnhardt Jr. The show was a hit to drivers too. Jeff Gordon made several appearances on the show. They even had shows at racetracks across the country. Overall, it was just a giant marketing scheme that made fans addicted to buying items.
After all of this, diecast companies such as Action Performance branched out to make millions of dollars on diecast collectibles alone. Besides representing drivers, diecast cars represent sponsors as well. It has simply become a tradition for race fans, young and old, to buy these collectibles.
Lionel, who bought Action Performance several years ago, released the annual most popular diecast list recently. It was no surprise, but NASCAR’s most popular driver, Dale Earnhardt Jr., topped the list from the Lionel NASCAR Collectibles press release:
1. Dale Earnhardt Jr. #88 Diet Mountain Dew Chevy
2. Dale Earnhardt Jr. #88 Diet Mountain Dew/”The Dark Knight Rises” Chevy – Michigan win car
3. Danica Patrick #10 GoDaddy.com Chevy
4. Dale Earnhardt Jr. #88 Diet Mountain Dew/”The Dark Knight Rises” Chevy – standard car
5. Jeff Gordon #24 DuPont Chevy
6. Kasey Kahne #5 Farmers Insurance Chevy
7. Jeff Gordon #24 AARP/Drive to End Hunger Chevy
8. Dale Earnhardt #3 Goodwrench Chevy Monte Carlo
9. Kevin Harvick #29 Budweiser Chevy
10. Brad Keselowski #2 Miller Lite/NASCAR Sprint Cup Series Champion Dodge.
Joseph Wolkin can be followed on Twitter at @JosephNASCAR.
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