“It’s almost a direct carryover from the Middle Ages,” says Karyn Rybacki, a professor of communication studies and public relations at Northern Michigan University. Ms. Rybacki, who studies stock-car racing, says the cultural elements of Nascar races — where fans travel many miles to attend, wear the colors of their favorite teams and virtually knight popular drivers — may be directly descended from medieval times, when people came in droves to make merry before another fast and dangerous form of competition, the joust…

“Instead of the horse, you have horsepower,” she says.