A Breakdown of All the Major Types of Car Racing:

Racing 🏎️ has always played a large role in the automotive industry. Automakers love to boast about racing wins, competing in specific series, and all of their sponsorships. Beyond being a sport where the best drivers and teams are pitted against one another, modern racing is equally as competitive on the tech front. Car racing has evolved to be so much more than just watching fast cars drive around a track, so we put together this list of all the major types of auto racing that you can watch on TV and even take part in.

Car racing tends to be a global thing with races being held around the world at some of the most historic racing tracks. On this list, you’ll find everything from iconic 24-hour races to quarter-mile drag races. Unfortunately, while these are all the major types of car racing, a lot of series aren’t readily available to watch in the U.S. For car enthusiasts in America, you’ll be able to find NASCAR, drag racing, and Global Rallycross (GRC) readily available on television. If you’re really looking into racing, there are a few series that you can even compete in.

Whether you’re looking for a new car series to keep up with or something to take up some time while you’re working from home because of the COVID 19 pandemic, here are 8 major types of amateur and professional car racing.

Open- wheel

Open-wheel racing is the first thing that comes to people’s minds when they think about car racing. This is the pinnacle, the top rung of the whole shebang, as Formula One (F1) and IndyCar are included in this category. As the name open-wheel implies, the cars that race in this series have drivers sitting in open-top cars, while the wheels are exposed. While open-wheel vehicles that compete in F1 and IndyCar may look similar, these racing series have different rules, guidelines to follow, performance, and tracks.

There are a few major differences between F1 and IndyCar, like where the series race. IndyCar races on ovals and road courses, while F1 only races on road courses. Other differences include fuel type, location, top speed, aerodynamics, and budget. When it comes to fuel, F1 cars use high-octane gas, while IndyCar uses ethanol. F1 is a global series with races taking place all over the world, while IndyCar races predominantly take place in America. F1 cars create far more downforce than IndyCars, which allow them to take corners at higher speeds but give them lower top speeds. Lastly, F1 teams recently agreed to a budget cap of $145 million in 2021, which will then drop to $140 million in 2022 and $135 million for 2023-2025. The budget for IndyCar is far less, hovering around $20 million.

Open wheel racing F1

F1

Formula E is a relatively new form of open-top racing. Unlike every other racing series in the world, Formula E is only for all-electric vehicles. Modern EV technology simply isn’t there for electric cars to race around for hours like Formula One or IndyCar racers. Formula E races have practice sessions, qualifying, and the race all on the same day. The races only last one hour and drivers must make one pit stop where they have to physically get into a different car. The budget for Formula E is much smaller than other open-top racing, as teams spend around $12 million a year.

F1, IndyCar, and Formula E aren’t the only open-top racers. There are a few amateur open-wheel series that people can watch, like Formula 1000. These vehicles race in Sports Car Club of America’s (SCCA) FB series and are powered by 1,000cc motorcycle engines. The SCCA also handles Formula 3 and Formula 4 races in the U.S.

Lastly, there’s Karting, where racers go around small courses in ultra-light, incredibly powerful, and specialized karts.

If you’re looking to get into open-wheel racing, you might want to look elsewhere. Karting is the only affordable type of open-wheel racing and it’s the jumping-off point for the majority of professional drivers. F1 and IndyCar drivers are some of the best drivers on the planet and, for the most part, they all started with karting as young children. Additionally, getting into F1 and IndyCar takes hundreds of millions of dollars of sponsors. Drivers that may be the best in the world can lose their seats if they don’t bring enough money to the table.Sports Car

Open-wheel racing may be the most popular globally, but sports car racing is a close second. This series is probably the one racing series with the most easily recognizable vehicles as most manufacturers compete at the GT (Grand Touring) level with vehicles that look a lot like their high-performance supercars. The Lamborghini Huracan, Ferrari 488, Chevrolet Corvette, Nissan GT-R, and Porsche 911 are all used as race cars in this series. This series is also home to the prototype class, which are non-production race cars that have unique bodywork, high-performance engines, and wild designs.

In this series, races can last anywhere between 2.5and 24 hours. Some of the 24-hour races are some of the more iconic ones in the world, including the 24 Hours at Daytona, 24 Hours of Nurburgring, and 24 Hours of Le Mans. Yes, these races really do last 24 hours and are a grueling test for both man and machine.

Sports car racing

Lemans

Automobile Club de L’Ouest (ACO) and the International Motor Sports Association (IMSA)are a few of the sanctioned organizations that regulate sports car racing. For the next section, we’re going to use the ACO’s class breakdowns to provide a better idea of how the ultra-fast Prototype cars share the track with GT vehicles.

The GT class of race cars is split into two categories: GTE Pro and GTE Am. As their names would suggest, the GTE Pro series includes professional drivers, while the GTE Am race cars are driven by amateur racers. The prototype class is also broken into two categories: LMP1 and LMP2. LMP1 includes hybrids and non-electrified race cars, while LMP2 vehicles come with Gibson 4.2-liter V8 engines and weigh slightly more.

The SCCA’s classes are slightly different, as the organization has two prototypes and one GT class for amateur racers. The P1 and P2 prototype classes allow for a wide range of vehicle designs, while the GT class includes modified “silhouette” replicas of series-produced sports cars.

Touring car

Unfortunately, Touring Car racing is mostly popular in Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, and Australia. The vehicles that are raced in this serious are based on road-going production vehicles that have been heavily modified. Unlike other race cars on this list, there’s little in the way that differentiates the vehicles, so there’s plenty of hard competition between drivers.

Races for the Touring Car series vary from sprints (short distances) all the way to endurances (three hours or more). There are a variety of Touring Car series for enthusiasts to watch, including Supercars Championship (SC), World Touring Car Cup (WTCC), British Touring Car Championship (BTCC), and Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters (DTM).

A lot of automakers compete in multiple Touring Car series with similar cars. Since each series has its own set of rules, the race cars may have different performance and aerodynamic requirements. For the most part, touring cars produce roughly 600 horsepower and share the same overall design as their road-going counterparts.

Production car

This racing series is also known as showroom stock in the U.S. and is one of the more economical and easier ways for enthusiasts to get into racing. In this series, very lightly modified or unmodified vehicles race against similarly outfitted cars. The production-based road cars in this series have strict restrictions to what kind of suspension, tires, wheels, aerodynamics, brakes, and performance vehicles can be fitted with. This is done to ensure vehicles are as similarly equipped as possible for racing to remain competitive. This series is available to both professional drivers and amateurs alike.

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