Why? Is an asphalt runoff area safer than sand/gravel/whatever? Honest question, I really don’t know

I totally agree. Sure, they’ve built nearly a million MX-5s over the years (according to wikipedia!), but it’s such a popular car for amateur/spec racing because they’re cheap and plentiful, people modify, abuse and wreck them without second thought. Reminds me of the stories of what people did to 60s muscle cars in…