Basic Information
As soon as someone built the first automobile, someone else built the second one, and said, "Which one is faster?" And that's how Auto Racing was born.
Of course, there are races and races - pure acceleration and straight line speed are the provenance of the drag racer, whilst pure speed is the domain of track racers like Formula 1 Racing. Rally Driving by contrast, takes place on (usually rural) public roads and demands navigational skills and advanced handling of the drivers, as well as speed of the machine. Unofficial road racing also occurs, but without the safety controls of organised rally driving - not least the presence of other road users - this is both dangerous and illegal in almost all jurisdictions. Some track racing also adds violent aspects to the sport - encouraging drivers to collide with one another as part of their racing tactics. This is known as a demolition derby in the US, and in the UK as banger racing or stock car racing (a term the US uses for track racing with production model cars as opposed to the custom built prototypes of high end track racing) - fictional versions of this sport can even include actual weapons, with racers firing on each other as well as ramming and racing.
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See Also
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Game and Story Use
- Races always provide opportunities for competition against NPCs, dirty tricks and intrigue.
- Car-hacking could have some nasty results at the speed modern racers go at…
- They also make good backdrops for other activities: wagers, encounters, etc.
- Auto racing is a contest of both technology and human skill, and can be a good source of plots.
- Racecars and their drivers can show up anywhere that fast cars handled well are useful: smuggling1, getaway driver for a heist, quickly delivering a MacGuffin where it needs to go…
- Recycling the John Henry story: One racer has a car with bleeding-edge tech and incredible metrics, but isn't particularly skilled. The other always uses the same out-of-date machine, but is a world champion seven times running. See also quality control - a team that focuses on reliability might find itself winning a championship on relatively few races (especially in the early days), because their machines may not be fastest, but they spend least time in the pits and always finish. The points they get for placing, race in, race out, add up to more than any of the other teams can manage in a mixed bag of wins and burn-outs.
- A competitor has some new engine design, and you need to steal the secret.
- Auto racing tropes and plots can be recycled with just about any vehicle:
- Replace an auto manufacturer with a horse breeder, and move the track to the Circus Maximus.
- Ships in the Age of Sail trying to circumnavigate the globe.
- Aircraft racing was really big in the 1920s and 1930s … and that would pay dividends for the fighter aircraft of WW2. Also, in the early days at least, aerospace engines were a good source of (relatively) light, high powered propulsion plant for land vehicles.
- And then there's powerboat racing…
- In an alternate history Cold War, Apollo 11 and a Soviet equivalent launched at about the same time.
- Countries and corporations send Humongous Mecha to compete and show off their new inventions.