The “SC” in “NASCAR” used to stand for “stock car”. LOL!
No stock cars are racing in NASCAR events, and haven’t been for many, many years. NASCAR is on the same level as the NFL, NBA, and MLB, it’s just advertising now and their events are just as boring.
The only “stock” cars from NASCAR Holdings Inc. races are in IMSA where you race GT3 sportscars bought from the factory in the GT Daytona class, GT4 in the Grand Sport class and TCR in the aforementioned class of their Michelin Pilot Challenge, and the Mazda MX-5 Cup.
I strongly believe if Ford and General Motors decide to get back into the compact sedan market, they could make a killing by having their sedans made with a $200,000 body in white version that’s caged up and ready for racing in TCR. Volkswagen, Hyundai, and Geely have TCR racers in many classes worldwide. Make $15,000 1500-2000cc engine sedans that form the base. Then make a higher version for $20,000, a luxury sport for $30,000, a trackday for $40,000, and a TCR for $200,000. The TCR cars would make the most money for the automaker. They do this model for the NHRA Factory Stock Showdown.
Stock cars lost their appeal with the transition to monoque chassis, which had been proven unsafe with the Thunderbirds of the 1960’s. That’s why today’s cars are built on a 1965 Ford Galaxie type chassis with a different front suspension. Real street cars are not safe for racing unlike back in the day. It was cheaper to build chassis just for racing and be safer. That’s how motorsport safety has become where no fatalities have been in a top-tier NASCAR series since 2001. In addition, no fatalities were made in the Gen 5 chassis era (2007-21 in Cup, 2010-present in O’Reilly).
Now Hendrick is taking what used to be Cup chassis manufacturing to build the Army M1301 ISV.
Now, the International Motor Contest Association has this problem with the IMCA Modifieds. The rules required a General Motors 1977-88 G Body chassis. As it’s harder to find any ladder frames from older vehicles left, the racing manufacturers are now having to make replacement ladder frames for IMCA Stock and Modified competition.