Kasey Kahne (5) takes the checkered flag to win the NASCAR Brickyard 400 auto race before mostly empty stands at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis, Sunday, July 23, 2017. (AP Photo/Dave Parker)

Jimmie Johnson (48), right, spins behind Kasey Kahne (5) and Brad Keselowski (2) before a sparse crowd during the NASCAR Brickyard 400 auto race at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis Sunday, July 23, 2017. (AP Photo/Tom Pyle)

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The field for the NASCAR Brickyard 400 auto race makes its way past a handful of fans in the stands in the first turn at Indianapolis Motor Speedway in Indianapolis, Sunday, July 23, 2017. (AP Photo/Michael Conroy)



Drivers came and went. The cars remained.

The Fords raced the Chevrolets. They chased one bright red-and-blue Dodge. Richard Petty drove it, and David Pearson drove a Mercury and Cale Yarborough generally drove a Chevrolet. The race was on Sunday and the auto showrooms were hopping on Monday, because that wasn’t just Petty’s or Pearson’s car or Yarborough’s car. It was yours.

Now NASCAR isn’t what it used to be. Marketers, pundits and media throw darts at the reasons why. All the targets are legitimate, but they forget the one in the bull’s-eye. The car isn’t what it used to be either.

People bought Fords or Chevrolets for the same reason they became Baptists or Methodists, at least in NASCAR’s Southern cradle. Long before someone invented “branding,” the name meant something.

Chevrolet owners said Ford was an acronym for “Fix Or Repair Daily.” Ford owners noted that Chevrolet actually meant “goat farmer.”

It was a big deal when the new Galaxie or Fairlane came off the line and an uncle would take it into the driveway. Family members would lift the hood and study every hose. If a rebellious relative showed up with an Impala or another GM alien, he was ignored.

“I’m crazy about a Mercury,” Alan Jackson sang, in a tribute to Ford’s first cousin. “I’m gonna buy me a Mercury and cruise it up and down the road.” Years before that, Ronnie and the Daytonas extolled the “little GTO.”

Jeff Burton, from South Boston, Va., remembers those days. He won 21 races, when the game went from regional obsession to national fad. Now he is NBC’s race analyst.

“My son has friends who turned 16 and don’t have drivers’ licenses and don’t want them,” he said. “I can’t fathom that. When I was 16, getting my driver’s license was my whole world. So times have changed.”

Who counts cars on the highway anymore? Who could tell a Nissan from a Honda at first glance? Nobody is singing about “my little Hyundai.” There’s no status in the name.

People buy cars that carry the most perks and the best deal, with zero-down, zero-percent financing. It’s like buying mayonnaise.

The truly breathtaking thing about the Brickyard 400 race on July 23 was the sight of the metal benches at Indianapolis Motor Speedway. There were no people in them. We’re talking whole sections, not rows

Out of embarrassment, NASCAR no longer provides attendance figures. The unofficial estimate was 35,000 in a facility that can, and almost always did, handle 400,000.

Twelve of the first 14 races on this year’s schedule had worse TV ratings than the year before, although NASCAR often wins its time slot. The races on Fox declined by 12 percent. Of course, the Indy 500 itself had its lowest ratings since flag-to-flag coverage began in 1986.

“The sport is in pretty good shape,” Burton said. “Not in great shape. But we’re being compared to the best times the sport has ever had, in the ’90s. I think the racing is definitely better this year and we have a lot of really good young drivers.

“When you hear people talk about the good old days, they forget that back then you might have had only four drivers in the lead lap. It’s far more competitive now.”

The 2007-08 recession also stopped people from driving their gas-intense campers hundreds of miles to the track.

And you’ll find some who still decry NASCAR’s nationalization. The top five TV markets for the July 4 Daytona race were all in the South.

But the sport also thirsts for personality, or at least the illusion. The Dale Earnhardt-Jeff Gordon rivalry was perfectly drawn. Old vs. new, South vs. North, gruff vs. earnest. The fan bases stewed in the type of hate that buys T-shirts and turns on the remote.

“I love Duke basketball,” Burton said. “I didn’t root for (North) Carolina even when they played for the national title. But that’s good. We have some great personalities. Their sponsors need to let them be themselves instead of worrying about their image or who they might offend.

“When Kyle Busch pushes Joey Logano on pit road after a race, well, you don’t want it to go over the top, but that’s what you’re looking for.”

NASCAR has a lush TV deal that stretches to 2024. Whether the sponsors will be as plentiful is a little more worrisome.

You say it’s a matter of cycles, but your answer might be at the DMV, where 16-year-olds would always line up for that First License, a true passage of life.

If cars aren’t important to them, NASCAR never will be.