@Soupy Actually, these contests are very popular. Every 4th of July ESPN airs Nathan’s Hot Dog Eating Contest. In 2011 over 40,000 spectators attended the event, and an additional 1.949 million viewers watched it live on ESPN television. *according to wikipedia (I tried to link to their page but for some reason I can’t get it to work)
Look at the success of the show Man v. Food on the Travel Channel. The host of the show travels the states and visits restaurants that offer eating challenges and takes on the challenge himself. This season he has stopped doing the challenges and has locals do the challenge instead. There are restaurants all over the US that offer eating challenges and each restaurant that does this has a wall dedicated to those who have beat the challenge. There is a restaurant in the tiny town of Eagle River, Wisconsin (the town we like to vacation at each year) that offers a pancake challenge. I can’t remember exactly how many pancakes you need to eat, but I think it was about 15 or 20 pancakes in a certain amount of time. There is also an eating challenge at a restaurant in the largest town near us called the Big Ass Challenge. The contestant needs to eat 25 large breaded chicken tenders and an ice cream pie in under an hour. If you beat the challenge you get a tshirt and $50 gift card. You can find this kind of competitive eating just about anywhere.
That said, yes it is popular here in the states, but as others have mentioned we weren’t the first country to do this. It may be wrong but I don’t see it stopping anytime soon. These contests are just another way for restaurants to promote their business.