Yep at the end of the day it all comes down to money. Even with a sell-out crowd it's not profitable to hold a F1 race at many of the circuits. Government subsidies are the only thing keeping most of them "profitable" or breaking even, and government subsidies usually require some major palm greasing in the US.
On top of that there isn't much interest in F1 in the US. Most people have never even heard of it, let alone follow it or watch it.
In the days of modern high speed internet I find this pretty pathetic. Nothing against US specifically but for anyone not living in a third world country. For any country, where their culture acts this way. And they all do to some extent.
There was a time where sporting events, they had to hop on ships and it'd take weeks just to arrive at the destination. The people following it would need to rely on newspapers or radio, sometimes with big delays. Then there was TV and jet airlines. The world was smaller and it became easier to follow overseas events. Then there became cable TV and the internet, which connected everyone worldwide. There's even internet in phones these days. You can do a google search to keep track of something while sitting at a train station or even watch the event live (sometimes). You might not be a fan of something, but what excuse is there for ignorance these days? The answer to everything is literally at your finger tips. I guess the two things that annoy me about this is one.. how insular local media usually is, saturating local things but showing little airtime to other things outside of that.
ESPN Sportscenter for example could show 45 mins on NFL, 5 mins on Indy and nothing on F1. Here in Australia even if Riccardio won the race, they'd just show 1-2 mins (at most) showing a very brief summary of the race and a 5 second mention at the end as the winner crosses the finish line. Meanwhile all week, they'll show an upcoming Rugby game, with what the players ate for breakfast, what niggling injuries they are having, what the coach thinks and what the whether is expected to be for the game, and which beach the players will be training at tomorrow.
And secondly, the mentality that if your friends in high school haven't heard of it, or the friends at the pub.. or your coworkers, then it doesn't exist. I don't understand the whole borders/nationalistic thing that is still so prevalent today. All the divisions that are put up, like mental prisons. The technology has improved but the people using it haven't caught up and are still limited by many things. The main reason people get into any sport is because their parents did, and it sort of became ingrained in them. They were exposed to it enough to be open and give it a chance. Many people don't like giving anything new a chance. But with anything.. even something as simple as food, how do you know what you like unless you've tried them all? So many people don't even see it that way and just follow the crowd. And like what they are told to like. A part of all of this is understandable but a part of it is frustrating, and it's like a self fulfilling prophecy. To me, variety is the spice of life. And with the internet and modern TV, we have the opportunity to be connected to many things at once. The world becomes smaller. To me this is a good thing, but to others, it's something to be afraid of.