Release date: 12/19/19

Shebbie has a need for speed and visits Las Vegas to learn to race with the best.

Inside the Episode: Las Vegas

History of Racing

The one thing that seemingly unites all of the human race is…well, racing. While racecars may be a recent phenomenon, racing itself is as old as human history (and perhaps even older). From cave paintings to Greek pottery, from the canoe races of Polynesia to the chariot races of Rome, racing can be found in every era and every culture around the world. This consistency across time and spaces testifies to the innate quality of that desire in humankind to test oneself against adversaries in direct competition. And with every leap forward in technology, has come new possibilities of ways in which human beings can race.

The development of the combustion engine in the 19th century offered unprecedented opportunity for humans to travel faster than ever before, over longer distances than ever thought possible. It was only a short matter of time before that same, new technology was leveraged, not for transport, but for competition.

In fact, the very first recorded auto race took place in only 1867, at the very outset of the development of the automobile. By 1894, the French publication Le Petit Journal had hosted the world’s first organized motorcar racing competition, with a 50 kilometer race from Paris to Rouen. Race-car driving was finally born and the world of human competition would never be the same.

In the modern era, auto racing has dozens of variants and is conducted all over the world. Two of most popular variants of the auto race are Formula 1 Racing which is favored in Europe and features exposed, open wheeled single seat cars and the other is Stock Car Racing, which is the most prominent form of auto racing in North America and utilizes ordinary cars that have been modified to race (known as stock cars) on a traditionally oval track.

Auto Racing In The United States

The origins of stock car racing in The United States can be found, surprisingly, in the activities of organized crime during Prohibition. In order to out-run police vehicles, rum-runners began to modify their cars to boost their performance. The innate human desire for competition shortly took hold, and these smugglers began racing these modified cars against one another for entertainment and for sport.

Even after the end of Prohibition, the cars continued to race and by 1948, NASCAR was formed in Daytona Beach, Florida, to help regulate and formalize the sport. Car manufactures followed suit and designed cars and parts to meet the demands of these racers, pushing the development of the automobile forward in unprecedented ways.

Today, Auto-Racing has grown into a multi-billion dollar industry with hundreds of millions of fans all over the world. In this way, Auto Racing serves as a continuation of the human impulse to compete, to push boundaries, and to test each other while also testing oneself.