One of the main problems with bringing people in is it's just not that well known as a sport/hobby, before I joined my schools formula schools team (little brother to the more well known formula student) I didn't even know performance RC's existed, I'd grown bored of the standard nikko type stuff that comes out of argos a few years before so as soon as I'd finished with formula schools I looked into racing myself, that was about 3 years ago I guess, had a 2 year break after racing a couple times in 8th offroad, and came back about 10 months ago to 10th electric
I do often get asked about racing if it comes up, and people outside of racing are sometimes genuinely shocked that theres a 1/10th scale worlds !
Also agree with what Nick said, my dad doesn't have an interest in it at all (he had to ask if my car was 2 or 4 wheel drive when it had the shell off
) so if I wasn't working when I came back and had savings when I started out I wouldn't have got anywhere really. Luckily my dad is supportive enough of my racing to get up at 1/2 7 on a sunday, although there is a bit of complaining
But for someone without even that much support they'd be totally stuck.