“There are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games.”

― Ernest Hemingway

By the 80s, F1 safety had improved significantly and the fatal accident rate was on par with today’s rate. The 50s and 60s held significantly higher danger to participants.

But that was part of the point - old-school motor-racing attracted the sort of (wealthy white male) characters who lived every day to the max, and hence were pretty fun to follow inside and outside the car.

Nowadays they're a bit less white, don't die or get maimed nearly as often (last death in 2015), but they have largely become a set of meticulous and obsessive kids who spend most of their life in front of simulators.

Fair point although many of those who died were fully aware of the risk and took extreme risks regardless.