The element of danger, I suppose. You need skill; fast reflexes to stay in one piece. It’s a sign of machismo, too. Even in women. Well, machisma, I guess. Also, you can get places more quickly. Get more done. If you’re the doing type.
It’s a kind of pyromania, I think. It is very pretty, burning up the roads or the skies. It’s like an altered state of consciousness because everything is going by so fast, it is unfamiliar. It changes your frame of reference. It makes you different from animal, maybe from human, too.
It also makes you different from other people. More competent in a way. Oddly, these days, slow is the new fast. Energy efficiency. It is so cool to drive slow enough that I’m on impulse power (no gas), and then I pull up behind the guy who ripped past me only to stomp on the brakes at the next light, just as that light turns green. Oh yeah, baby!