Are parents doing the responsible thing by allowing teens to race?

I come from a family that loves auto racing.  My Father, Uncles and family friends all raced on short tracks during the 50's and 60's.  My Brother and I became gearheads and drag raced our street cars at the local dragstrip, neither racing for the first time before the age of 19.  Although I would have, if I could have.

But now that I'm at the Grand Old Age of 51 I wonder... is it right for a parent to allow a child or early teen to drive a race car?  Is a parent acting responsibly by allowing them to do something that can be as dangerous as racing?  Isn't it the parents responsiblity to tell a child or teen that, although you love the sport, its very dangerous and it's my duty as a parent to make choices for you, until you get a little older, until you can better judge the risk vs reward?

I don't know.

If you're a parent and you read stories of Al Unser Jr. driving USAC sprint cars at the age of 15, the same of Jeff Gordon, or Billy "The Kid" Meyer running funny cars at 17, do you cringe a little?  Does a little voice ask the question - "What parent in their right minds allows a teen to drive a race car that has 750 horsepower and weighs 1200 lbs, sideways, in the dirt, wheel-to-open wheel?  Or a 6000 hp dragster?   And what were they driving at an earlier age that gave them the ability to handle this race car at this age?"

We all drove go-karts and mini-bikes as children, but what is involved for a parent to allow their child to move up through the ranks at an early age?  I'm not saying these kids don't have talent, but I wonder if parents keep in mind that children and teens have no real sense of mortality and believe themselves invincible.

The arguement could be made that football and skateboards cause more injuries than racing would, but it doesn't have the same feel to me as the danger of racing high horsepower cars at high speeds. 

 So does it bother me that NASCAR put an minimum age limit on their drivers?  No.  Not at all.   As for the young drivers, I will leave those decisions up to their parents.

And I hope its the right one.