my head hurts from reading all this crap. drag racing is an an acceleration contest between to vehicles, period. nothing else was asked by the op. yes the ricer cars seem a bit odd but they are still doing the same thing, along with motorcycles and junior dragsters. is the sport dying? yes, some parts of it are but other parts are going great guns. some one mentioned the expiration dates on safety equipment, well i'll add needing to renew your competition license every few years and have your hotrod recertified too. some where in the 80's things started to go way up in price to compete and have continued since. back to the original question "is drag racing dying?"