Yes, I have to say I'm in the same boat. Preferred the days when stock cars looked like stock cars, and every race meant the chance to see two rivals mess it up a little and possibly get into it on the grass after the melee!
Seems like the drivers today are nothing more than bottled up, pre-packaged advertising agencies for NA$CAR and their sponsors. Nothing left distinguishing them from each other, albeit their track suit colours.
The vehicles they drive now in no way represent a 'stock car' and you almost need a microscope to find the differences between them. Same engines, same body lines, same frames/cages... Hell, if it wasn't for the grill and headlight stickers I'd swear NA$CAR restricted all the teams to using one race car manufacturer! I was going to say 'one car manufacturer', but they don't make the race cars anymore!!
I love building the older kits and enjoy listening or reading about the history of the sport, and can say with assurance I could now care less where NA$CAR goes from here. Pretty soon you'll be watching two and a half hours of promos, advertising, star driver profiles, team profiles, etc. and will for the last half hour watch the final 20 laps or so of the actual race!
Long live the king, ...Sir Petty.