[CurtEgerer]

>>>IMO, it's a totally different environment.<<<

Exactly right. These are usually part of some sort of local festival. You've got many people and kids lining the streets who are clueless about motorsports and what can happen (so I shouldn't probably call them idiots). But for a professional driver to take part in this is criminal - think about it. I'm going to strap into some sort of 1000HP monster truck, give it full power and jump some cars with kids lining either side of the street, completely unprotected. You would have to be a complete IDIOT.

WRC has much much tighter crowd control than the wild days of the 80's, at least in most countries. Go to a Rally America event and there is extremely tight crowd control - you're only allowed in specific roped off spectator areas, usually on slow-speed turns.