I'm not a huge fan of the Euro style of race calling where they speak in the past tense. They also use the pronoun 'it' a lot instead of 'he' or 'she'.
"Bobby Fischer went to the front, Taxicab went with It... "
how about the American style? "And Bobby Fischer is taking the lead! Taxicab surges!" ?
or what about Vic's "Bob-beeeeee FISCH
ERRRRRRRRR!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111111111111 TAX-I-CAB at the wi-re... !!!!
..." ?
I guess the Euro style is 'classier'...
Doesn't really matter to me. As long as the announcer is calling the race and has the field's names in recall.
I usually have the announcer on live, and then the first go-round of a replay viewing(where I usually mute the sound once I know who's who). Very few announcers have to be muted on live.