I guess it's a natural follow on. American cars, from the late '60s to early '70s went to crap. In the mid '90s, once American manufacturers started cooperating with European manufacturers, American cars became better built and more visually appealing. Now, instead of building our own test track in the vein of Nurburgring, we are going to duplicate it turn for turn and hill for hill. I am all for having something similar to the 'Ring in the U.S. (even to the point of holding races and allowing the general population to test their abilities on it) but at the very least, have the decency to make it our own.
Besides, a big part of what makes the 'Ring unique is its local environment (temperature and other weather variables). Duplicating the 'Ring in the American desert will not give the same results as the actual 'Ring.

re; Rt1583
The contrast in performance between the two tracks would make quantifying the effect of heat on the car easier.

What!? Replicating something for novelty factor is one thing but this is absurd. Why not extract the best qualities of the Nurburgring and incorporate them into a better track? Although any design more complex than a circle is a big leap for American circuit racing.

So perhaps someday americans will get to see a real car races (F1) instead of this silly NASCAR races

Replicating the terrain/turns/etc is one thing. There may be a challenge replicating cool humid air. And if the overall elevation is higher, lap times will fall.

Hopefully they will get a clue from the Pocono track and use solar for power. Having a bank of electric car battery chargers using solar PV would also allow the testing of electric cars and bikes. Funny thing, Nevada has an over abundance of sunshine but, use very little in comparison. Yet they have the highest unemployment in the nation.

Obviously duplicating the history and the aura of the original 'Ring is out of the question. In the question is the price. Have they figured out how much this is going to cost?..and how it is going to be paid for? Will there be open track days? That would most likely be a boon for local repair shops, MedEvacs, EMTs and hospitals.
The reason the 'Ring fell out of favor with the racing world is that the place is too dang dangerous. Changing elevations (100's of feet), blind corners, off-camber turns will catch the driver driving over his head. Plus difficult to access crash scenes..Nah, this ain't gonna happen.

re; ChgoSTrider
Do you really consider a change in elevation a danger? The blind corners can have warning flags if there is a obstruction, and if the driver can't deal with off-camber turns he shouldn't be racing. Building in good access to the likely crash sights wouldn't even cost that much.

re; electric38
that is a very good reason for not wanting expensive electricity.

I'd love to have a nurburgring in America but why not take the best of the nurburgring and incorporate it into a new racetrack in the shape of America, like the northern part of the track(Washington to Minnesota) could be a 1-3 mile straight allowing for getting cars to top speed etc etc and within the the main track( shape of USA) there could be multiple smaller tracks like a gokart track etc etc and there could be roads to allow for ambulances or toe trucks in case there's a crash.