follow the emotions of a driver in real time and a rarity for television producersthe drivers are the star and the more we can get the driver engagement the driver as part of the story it makes for a better race said sam flood executive producer of nbc sports and nbcsnmost sports hockey players trash talk on the ice and nascar you can shake your fist out the window throw up a middle finger or do something to salute one of your competitors but you really cant talk to them while the race is going on flood said football players can stand over a quarterback and say something so its fun now that in these races the drivers are able to get at it a little bit verbally which is something wed love to see more of nascar is turning off the simulators this weekend in an easter breakthere is still plenty of virtual racing to be found on tv and online with real stars espn this week partnered with torque esports for a virtual racing series to air an allstar series featuring former formula one champions emerson fittipaldi jacques villeneuve and jenson button as well as indianapolis 500 winners juan pablo montoya dario franchitti helio castroneves gil de ferran and tony kanaanimsa has a virtual series and nbc sports created its own nascar shorttrack series that ran all week world of outlaws sprint cars made a league nascars existing iracing league continues to run and suddenly there isnt a night a week a viewer cant find virtual racing on some screen or another