NASCAR drivers as athletes? Come on.(Knight Ridder Newspapers)

MIAMI _ All race-car drivers are athletes. Sure. And so are all cabbies and farmers who own tractors and that greasy, carnival-worker-looking guy who operates the garbage truck.

Sorry, but driving a vehicle does not make you an athlete. No matter how fast you go, how hard you compete or how many pretty girls scream at you as if you're a member of NSync.

These kinds of arguments often are flawed because the premise is flawed. The question shouldn't be whether race-car drivers or golfers or jockeys are athletes. The question is this: Are their activities athletic?

When, exactly, did steering, shifting and stepping on the gas pedal become athletic skills? These, on their own, are not the actions of an athlete. They can be performed by athletes, sure, but they also can be performed by librarians, bank tellers and computer geeks who sweat less frequently than their laptops do.

Now, clearly, competing in NASCAR or any other circuit requires a mind that can move as fast as the car. Coordination, foresight and guts also are necessities. There is no doubt drivers are pushed physically, too, sweating away pounds through their firesuits.

But what's athletic about sitting for 400 miles driving in a circle? The speed, the juking, the nimble moves are orchestrated by the driver, but they are performed by the car.

Racing actually is more of a mental exercise than a ...