Electric or Nitro? From what I have seen it really depends on what people are running at their local track. Electric 1/8th scale is killing the nitros at our local track and most of the nitro guys are changing over.
At 2 tracks within an hour from us 1 is almost all nitro unless we go race there and the other is mostly nitro with a small group slowly switching over to electric.
Electric is faster, cleaner, and less hassel. If you are new to the hobby you are more likely to stick with it going electric.
Now with that being said I do love to watch the nitro guys race. It takes experience and a good pit man to properly tune and race a nitro buggy or truggy. When done right it it awesome.
If you love nitro and are good at it stick with it, if not try the electric route.
Just my 2 cents.