Exhibition races in '96, '97 and '98. The idea was to bring together racers from a bunch of different countries/ regions/ racing disciplines. NASCAR was trying to branch out into other countries in the late 90s - Australia in particular with AUSCAR.Those are all some great finds.
Y'know, the more that I think about it... why on earth was NASCAR in Japan? Especially a bunch of the West cars? Was there really that big of an interest?
So - to focus on the 1997 event - they had some notable Winston Cup, Busch Series and Winston West drivers in the same field as some very well known Japanese drivers (Like the 'Drift King') and even Aussie Supercar champ Jim Richards for the pure enjoyment of it all.
And money..... I'm sure there was A SMIDGEN of money involved somewhere....