[s1ngletracker]

I wouldn't say its so much about climbing a ladder; more about people feeling it out or wanting to see what its about without having to invest a lot of money up front.

You can hop on any noobish team without having prior experience. But if you're trying to get on a team that's actually decently fast, good luck jumping on with zero road racing/crew experience at all.

Teams need crew, and crew can come and don't have to pay for anything, the drivers cover their expenses. Great, cheap way to have fun. Is it as fun as driving? Not gonna make that argument. But for example, I can't afford any more races this year but I might go to the race at Laguna Seca just to crew, gonna be a ton of fun and cool to experience such a famous world class track.

Starting a team/building a car is yet more expensive. Crewing beats not doing it at all, for darn sure.