Here's my .02. I have street raced, and i will again. Is it the right thing to do, no. Thing is there is no tracks within 2 hours of me. Some have mentioned the size and weight of our trucks. Who cares, if someone wrecks at 100 MPH, be it in an f-250 or a civic, someone is probably gonna die. With the bystanders thing, the way the races are set up in toledo, its out of town, and everyone hangs out at the starting line, with just a few people at the finish. Noone in between. With that setup its pretty hard to hit anyone, so if you do somehow manage to crash, you'll only hurt yourself, which may be a good thing if you are so stupid you can't drive in a straight line for 1320 feet.
I don't see how this gives us much of a bad name. What gives us a bad name/image is the smoke. Everyone races no matter what kind of car they have. Hell, i raced my old grocery gitter crown vic before. Does that make crown vic drivers look bad?