I live in western PA near Lernerville Speedway which is a 1/2 mile oval dirt track. I don't attend Lernerville, but keep up with the results in the local paper. Many of the racers who run for points at Lernerville don't run any of the other dirt tracks concentrating on 1 track closest to their homes only racing 1 night per week rather than 3 nights per week. The normal car count last year for the 4 divisions at Lernerville was maybe in the 120 area. I've seen the car count down in the 90's this season, especially if there is rain in the forecast. And towards the end of the season, many just stopped coming knowing they wouldn't finish the season in the money.
I help out on a T/S car and early in the year we had big plans of running at 4 different tracks this season in Q8 races. But as the economy soured we kept cutting back our plans and ended up running the Door Warz only at PRP. The payout this season was bumped up and last year we always had a decent car count for the series. This season was horrible as far as car counts. We always had racers tow in from Ohio to run with us, but not this season. I think at 3 of the 6 events we only had 8 cars.
And just looking at the overall car count at the track, I could see folks just aren't racing as much as they did in the past.
So yes, I believe the economy is affecting the racer as well as the spectator. The next 3-5 years will prove interesting as to how the organizations adapt to getting the racer to the track and spectators in the stands.