Sorry, my intent wasn't to make things political. I just feel like I'm constantly hearing about stuff that millennials and younger are "killing", be it golf, Applebee's, sports cars, motorcycles, or rock and roll. Or reading tired judgments about how we're all lazy, phone-addled baristas with useless liberal arts degrees because we do different things for fun.
I think that the rise of Uber and self-driving cars will eventually be a boon to the "fun" vehicle market. The less people depend on cars for boring, practical transportation, the more it'll make sense to own something for pure enjoyment. And the more freedom automakers (at least, what'll be left of them) will have to design vehicles only for fun.
Imagine a world where, instead of owning a commuter car, you dial up a self-driving Uber that takes you to work, or to the grocery store, cheaply and quickly. All of a sudden, there's no pressure to buy a CUV for practicality reasons -- driving is going to be purely a hobby, and you're going to feel a lot freer to buy something fun and impractical.
In some ways, I think the newer tech will make motorsport more accessible. I love ICE cars and all the quirks and stuff involved, but imagine if you could own a bitchin' track car with the low maintenance of an electric motor? You wouldn't need a bunch of garage space and tools to work on it.
Sure, something would be lost -- the art of shifting and the incredible sound of an ICE engine really roaring. But, you could argue that going from horses to cars, we lost that visceral connection between human and animal, that tangy scent of horse manure and saddle leather.
I think that we're just in a transitional period right now -- ICE sports cars are starting to look and feel old-fashioned, and the new tech isn't quite ready for primetime. A lot of young people I've met who otherwise don't give a damn about sports cars think Teslas are cool as hell, because they are new and exciting and different...and in a lot of ways blow ICE cars away.
So, I don't think sports cars are dead, I think we're just in a lull waiting for the next big thing.