I listened to an interview with Philip McCallen on Manx Radio whilst I was at the TT, during practice week, and he was very passionate in his derision of all the people who call for road races like the TT to be stopped. He got quite angry about people not involved in racing trying to sanitise, restrict or completely stop it.
His attitude, and that of many other racers, is that they all know the risks and danger involved yet still choose to compete in the sport that they love. They try very hard to make it as safe as possible, but by its very nature it is dangerous and that is a lot of the appeal, as well as the competition.
Personally, I find it very sad that there are deaths almost every year during the races, but I have to agree with Phil's sentiments; it's each persons own choice to compete, just as it's our own choices to ride bikes and risk injury or death every day on the roads.