I do not recall any claims at the time that the show or the car was “racist.”
It is fascinating that just a little over a quarter century ago the flag on the car wasn’t an issue, but now it is.
As a Northerner from a family that never had a dog in that fight, I have never completely understood how that flag has been transformed from an interesting historical artifact to the equivalent of a white sheet with holes in it - in only 30 or 40 years.
At this rate, I’ll bet in five years it will be edited/blurred out of films and videos.