HEMBREE: Alert – Race Car In Danger

Sprint Cup

HEMBREE: Alert – Race Car In Danger

The tried-and-true Monopoly race car could be sent to the garage – permanently…

Mike Hembree | Posted January 14, 2013 Charlotte, NC

The tried-and-true Monopoly race car has been part of the game since the 1930's. (Image: HASBRO)

With all the talk about fiscal cliffs and Tim Tebow and Generation Six stock cars, one of the year’s big stories might have escaped the attention of many.

Tragically, the old reliable race car, the one that has made millions of laps around the old Monopoly game board, could be no more.

Hasbro, which makes the money game that many of us grew up playing in the shadows of Christmas trees and on the kitchen table, is attempting to generate some publicity by making a change in the familiar tokens that players use to pass GO and land on such grand places as New York Avenue and Boardwalk.

The company is using its Monopoly Facebook page to allow players to select one of the long-time tokens – wheelbarrow, top hat, shoe, thimble, battleship, dog, iron or, perish the thought, race car – to be retired. The banished token would be replaced by a toy robot, cat, guitar, diamond ring or helicopter.

Are these people kidding?

Not sure how it was at your house, but when we played Monopoly we rolled the dice to see which player got first pick of tokens, and the first pick was always – ALWAYS – the race car.

Second choice was usually a tossup between the battleship and the top hat.

For obvious reasons, the race car has advantages. It is faster than the wheelbarrow, shoe, dog and iron, and, even though its wheels don’t actually work, you can pretend to be sliding through the corner past the jail and right on to Virginia Avenue.

And you could pretend to be Richard Petty. This was the best part. None of the slot-car tracks Santa brought ever worked properly, but the Monopoly race car had no power connections and no restrictor plates. Roll double sixes, and you were off.

I don’t recall winning many Monopoly games (was never good at handling money), but my race car never crashed, either.

I was much better at Trivial Pursuit but was quite disappointed to discover that none of the playing pieces were shaped like race cars.

Let Hasbro know how you feel about this potential travesty.

The race car must live.

Mike Hembree is NASCAR Editor for SPEED.com and has been covering motorsports for 30 years. He is a six-time winner of the National Motorsports Press Association Writer of the Year Award.

The opinions reflected herein are solely those of the above commentator and are not necessarily those of SPEED.com, FOX, NewsCorp, or SPEED

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Mike Hembree

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