Ripping Some Racing Cards

Has there ever been a product from a sport you don't necessarily collect that you've really wanted to get? That's the way it is for me with the 2017 Donruss racing cards. Now, I'm not an avid NASCAR watcher but I do watch a race from time to time, mainly the big ones like Daytona and what not. When Panini announced last year that they were getting into the NASCAR card business, I'll admit, I was a bit curious. I read some reviews of their initial offerings and the cards looked good but it wasn't anything to really draw me in to getting a pack or two. However, when I saw the preview and details for Donruss racing, I'll admit I was intrigued. Then, I saw two breaks over on the Sport Card Collectors blog and that sealed the deal, I had to get some packs for myself, which is what I did on my most recent card shop visit.

Here's the base design. It harkens back to the 1990 Donruss baseball cards with the name titled and written in script. Not only are there Monster Energy Series (aka Sprint Cup Series) drivers in the set, there are also drivers from the Xfinity Series and the Camping World Truck Series.

Here's some of the horizontal base driver cards. This is the only real negative on this set for me and the picture is horizontal but the name and nameplate are vertical. The photos are pretty nice though, especially the Kyle Busch card with the flag in the background.

The nice thing about this is that it's more that just pictures of drivers on cards in the base set. There are cards that show off the particular cards with a split screen type of effect for the standard design and an alternate design. This gives a casual watcher (like me!) an idea of what the car looks like for a particular driver.

There are also cards featuring the pit crews of certain drivers. That's pretty cool if you ask me as it gives the crews some recognition.

As is the case with Donruss, the inserts are plentiful. I'm not sure if these would be considered "cracked ice" or not but regardless, they are really nice, especially the Richard Petty card.

Another one of the insert sets are 84 Donruss throwbacks. Don't believe me that they're throwbacks? Just have a look at Kyle Petty's hair.

Here are the rest of the inserts I pulled. It's nice that Panini did Race Kings cards much like they do Diamond Kings for baseball, Court Kings for basketball, etc. Opening these packs was a nice change of pace and really left me wanting more. It's always nice to crack open some packs of cards of something new and I must say I'm definitely a fan of this product.