Opinions Drifting

     I believe that the motorsport sense of drifting - when it was first coined and someone was actually thinking about the meaning of the word, rather than using it reflexively - comes from the fact that a drift is essentially unsteerable. A skilled driver can put the car into a drift at a precisely-chosen time and place... but from the moment the drift starts until the tires have full traction again, the car is essentially ballistic and the driver has (almost) no control.
      A drift in the traditional sense is steerable (in a car) once the driver realizes that they are off-course or out of their lane. A skid, on the otherhand is not steerable. The best one can do with a skid is turn the steering wheel in the direction of the skid and wait for the tires to re-engage the pavement.
  Actually, motorsport "drifting" is closer to the original/core sense of the word (being carried along by current/winds, not under steering control). The cited usage is to some extent a later derived "metaphorical" sense, in that it alludes to the unpredictable variations in heading/course that are caused by drifting.
  In motorsport drifting I was under the impression that the front wheels are turned into the skid and are "steered" throughout the turn while the amount of "kick out" of the rear end is controlled by careful modulation of the throttle in order to keep the tail out without completely spinning out.