NASCAR

NASCAR is an initialism that’s short for National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing.

Today’s stock cars are anything but stock, their bodies and mechanical packages are specially developed for oval racing.

The racing series grew out of modified vehicles used by bootleggers to evade capture by police during the Prohibition Era. When drinking was made legal again, some of these drivers and modifiers used their skills in racing and entertainment.

From his home in Daytona, Floria, William France Sr organised NASCAR in 1947 so that stock car racers would have standard rules to compete by. He also set out a schedule of races, and ensured that shady operators were increasingly frozen out of the picture.

The NASCAR organisation is still a family owned and run affair to this day.