It's not a case of tree huggers getting into cars, it's simply what is available to consumers.
Right now the Tesla is the second quickest 0-60mph vehicle available, second only to the Porsche 918 Spyder (which is a hybrid and was also only a limited run). The Tesla is $133,000, vs the Spyder's $845,000. There's nothing close to the Tesla in price until you get well down the list.
I'm not particularly mechanically savvy and would have a hard time keeping a fast muscle car running, that makes the Tesla massively appealing.
As Jim notes, noise is a major problem for drag strips closing down. Imagine 20, 30 years from now when electric is more common if a drag strip could remain profitable by running events that consisted of only electric vehicles, and then maybe could get permits for a select few noisy events. For those of us who like the loud stuff (all of us here I think), electric may help keep it around!
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_fastest_production_cars_by_acceleration