Well , all those stats are fine and dandy, but race car driving is a quite hazardous occupation and I would love my family enough to choose a job where my life is not at risk daily. You are sort of mixing apples and oranges it your post.
I think it’s a view.
I don’t view race car driving as any more dangerous than any other sport.
As get more experienced, proficient and expert you are able to physically do more things that look dangerous but, really form an odds perspective aren’t.
For instance, I am an expert boarder and I do some pretty hilarious stuff like jumping over the side of a cliff, because a friend took an unfair headstart.
I fell 30+ feet, landed and rode toward where my friend was laughing because he thought he had got one over on me.
As I near him I flipped my board hard and threw snow all over him.
We laughed our butts off. It was that Jack Azz who taught me to heli board a few years earlier.
I will tell you I have fallen more times doing the simplest things on a board like just skating toward the lift.
Same thing when I use to compete on Ice Skates. I could doubles and occassionally a triple and some very fancy foot work but, without fail I could be talking to someone and skating at a regular face and end up on the floor.
Fortunately, I know how to fall by rolling so I rarely got injured.
Same thing with Mountain biking. I will tear down the mountain and I have had some close falls.
Your gonna if your as aggressive as I am but, my best falls came when I was doing something simple on a flat surface.
Zip Line? Love it. Did a mile and a half zip line in Telum, Mexico. Cut the hell out of my leg. 6 inches because I was doing an acrobat move and my leg ran across the wire.
When I got the next ramp they asked if I wanted medical. “No, the ride ain’t over. Got a bottled water?”. They did and I rinsed off my leg and finished 30 minutes later.
When I got off I had my backpack and bottled water. Rinsed again, tossed some Iodine on for 15 minutes, rinsed it off again sprayed three layers of instant skin on it.
Went to the Cinotes and snorkeled. Then went to big pyramid and drank some water from an alligator farm using my Lifesaver bottle that makes pure water on the spot.
Was Sheriff Explorer for 4 years and did search and rescue. Saw some stuff that made me scratch my head and wonder “They are only 400 yards from the parking lot and this is where they stopped?”
Saw some other stuff too but, here is where people think I”m crazy but, I do my 2nd favorite thing that makes me happy.
I won’t ever stop. I need it. Going to the ocean makes me happier than anything but, going for hike completes me.
I hike alone. I love it and have done it my entire life. I understand the risks and I am my own 1st responder.
I don’t hike with any of my friends. They don’t have the head for it nor physical stamina.
I also go off trail if I see something interesting or just get curious about “What’s over there?”.
I carry everything I need and the few times I’ve hiked with others they became an impediment to the hike and tired at points I wouldn’t think they would but, they did.
I end carrying their stuff. Not superman but, when a thing must be done, it must be done.
I’ve screwed up more times than I can think in terms of calculating time on trail, destination and daylight and had to just make camp right where I’m at and continue in the morning.
I love it and just chalk it up to “Oh well” but, I know where I’m at and of the couple of times I wasn’t sure, I just slowed everything down, knowing that if I thought it through I’d figure it out.
Two weeks ago went for a walk at a state park with some friends. I grabbed a map on the way in and had just my daypack.(really it will take 4 people through a week just fine) I marked the map as we went through the trail by numbers and my compass settings.
My friends had been on this trail and we came to certain point that they got lost. I wasn’t. I had the map and knew exactly where were including having marked a couple of spots I wanted to come back and visit that weren’t noted on the map.
Now, two the friends are, in situations like this, frequently wrong yet never in doubt. Stupid. That’s how you get lost.
So they’ve started at the head end of this trail before and ended back there? Sure they have.
So they come to the point where I can see on the map we are a mere 1/3 of a mile from our cars. The decide to go left. I count the distance realize it’s going to increase the trip by a bit more than 3 miles.
I don’t care. I’m here for the day and we are going to go past the Guard House if we go their direction.
Thing is, I’m the only dummy with two 1.5 liter bags of water in my back pack and none of these dummies bothered to bring any water.
They ask me, condescendingly, what I think.
“I don’t have an opinion. You have done this two times more than me and you seem certain that going north is correct. Well, it will take us right past the guard house and then we can walk back down.
Thing is, there is a Coke machine right there but, none of you brought any more than your sunny attitudes and I have plenty of water. So I couldn’t care less if we take your long route and eat lunch in about 3 hours or if we go this way and have it in about 30 minutes”.
So they all of the sudden get on the same page and suddenly reverse their decision.
So I ask them “Are you sure? A lot of people second guess their 1st decision and get into trouble”.
“Besides, we’ve got you and you are always prepared. It’s this way. I remember that log”.
so as they pass me I mutter to the husband of one the girls “They remember that log?”
He asks if we are going in the right direction and I tell him “Yeah”.
He says “Great you would have something wouldn’t you?”
“With those two? Nope. We going in a direction that I didn’t feel needed arguing over”.
Sohhh, if you are comfortable not doing anything dangerous have at it.
“It’s a great life you don’t weaken” and “Don’t take life so seriously, No one gets out of this thing alive”.
Oh wait. I might have said the last time.