An old remark was, without rules, auto racing would soon become about as exciting as watching the jets land at JFK.

Another point is, mostly sports are sold as drama, that is, about human characters the audience can identify with, characters taking on challenges. So, see lots of pictures of the drivers, that is, the characters in the drama, and commentary about the characters, but next to nothing on the engineering of the cars. So, what's the bore/stroke ratio, max piston speed, max RPMs, number of valves per cylinder, valve spring design (last I heard, they don't use metal springs and use compressed gas instead), intake boost design and pressures, intercooler design, fuel injection design, fuel chemistry, clutch design, transmission design, suspension design, etc.? Don't hear much about those details!

So, it's not sold as a competition or lesson in engineering or the old "improve the breed" but as human drama.

So, have rules to deemphasize the engineering and just let the drama show. On with the show!