Depends though.
I'd hardly call a cv6 monaro a sports car.
Yes it does look nice, but underneath it's another commodore v6 or what not.
But i guess that's what we've come to in this day and age. Most people recognise a sports car by what it looks like, and they could have barely any clue to what's under the bonnet.
And it also depends on what we need the car for. With the orignal question being "What makes a car appealing to you?" it can be many things from us needing a gas-guzzling v8, to needing a toyota prius.
But on the topic of sports cars i guess looks is always a factor, as we cannot take our cars to the limits on everyday driving, but for a track/race car, i wouldn't care less about looks. I would drive a gemini, as long as it could whip a mega-buck gt3 porsche.
But in the end we're all looking for different things in a car.
I might like wrx's for example, the fact that it is a four-door with a note from an aftermarket exhaust that can't be matched, but you might not, because in many ways it resembles a family car with a turbo.