Every NASCAR fan wants, or should I say, needs a collection of die cast cars. I was a fan from the very first race I watched. All the cars and all the colors and paint schemes of the different Sponsors is one reason I keep watching. Those cars are simply gorgeous. And I need to have a collection to look at all the time.

What exactly is a Die cast car? It's an exact replica of an actual race car. It's put into a mold and die casted. So a die cast car can be made to duplicate any make of race car. If you are a Dale Jarrett fan like I am, the die cast would be made for a Ford. And all Fords are created equal. When I first started watching NASCAR, the Ford was a Thunderbird. Several years later they started using the Taurus. And now, with the new car, it is a Ford Fusion.

Once the die cast is made of a particular model car, it is personalized to a particular Driver by giving that car the same paint scheme that the Driver has. Every Driver has their own sponsor. And the car is painted with that Sponsor logo on the car. The cars also have many associate Sponsors, and these are usually on the front sides of the cars. And each car has their own number placed on the doors and on the roof of the car.

From time to time, the cars get different paint schemes for their cars. Like my Dale Jarrett. I have an Air Force car, a ToysRus car, a Mothers Day car, an IROC (International Race Of Champions) car and an Arnold Palmer car. In addition to the original red, white and blue Ford Credit/Quality Care cars and the UPS cars that came along when UPS became the primary Sponsor. The same goes for any race car and Driver. With that die cast of that model, you can get the paint schemes of any of the Drivers.

Die casts come in various sizes also. On a scale of the actual car. The most popular size is 1:24. That means it is 1/24th of the size of the actual car. The bigger the number, the smaller the replica. So, a 1:18 car is much bigger than the popular 1:24 car. Then comes the 1:43, which is half the size of the 1:24 car. And the matchbox size is 1:64.

A # 9 Dodge car would be Bill Elliott or Kasey Kahne, depending the year the die cast was made. The # 20 could be a Pontiac or a Chevrolet. And now a Toyota. Depending on the year. If I had been collecting Dale Jarrett cars all along, I would also have a # 21 Citgo car and a # 18 Interstate Battery car. I'll have to look into that. I should add them to my collection, even though I was unaware there was such a thing as NASCAR back then.

So there you have it. A die cast car is a replica of a race car made from a mold to be a duplicate car at a smaller size. The car is then painted exactly like the original car. Each year the same car may have several different paint schemes. And a die cast could be made of these different schemes. Each car comes in it's own box, except the 1:64 size. And display cases can be purchased separately.