That's largely true. You don't need the big awning and motorhomes etc to win, nor do you need to run with a team, but the impression of professionalism could suggest to newcomers otherwise. Also, karting is unlike most popular sports in two aspects:
1) If you liken our testing to other sports practice sessions, karting still has another layer of preparation, organisation and expense beyond that.
2) 90% of drivers will go years without a result of significance. In football, even when playing for a poor team, you will at least win some games.
Karting is without a doubt the most competitive sport I know of throughout all it's levels. There may be other sports that are as competitive at the higher levels, but most other sports will put you against opponents of a broadly similar ability level. MSA karting (and now to a large extent non-MSA) puts you straight up against those running at national level or good enough to run at national level.
Having said that, this has pretty much always been the case. In my view karting will never be massively popular because of the above reasons, but we need to address the problem where those that could/would race are choosing not to. In my view this is almost entirely down to cost and complexity.
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