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The Beginning
Street racing is rumored to have started in the early 1930s. During a time of Stock car racing and early drag racing, people took the races to the streets over bets of money or even bets for cars, creating an era and kind of racing. -
Top Secret
Smokey Nagata founded his tuning and performance shop "Top Secret" in 1991. This sparked a large number of people to customize and tune their cars to perfection, just as Smokey had. And most often, these tuner cars were big names in the street racing scene. -
Midnight 200mph blast
Around 4 a.m. on November 4, 1998, Smokey Nagata attempted to break the 200mph barrier on a British freeway in his Mk4 Supra. After 3 hours of continuous driving, he managed this feat, setting a new speed record on a public roadway, which to this day people strive to beat. -
TX2K
Texas 2K started in 2000. It started as a Supra-only street racing event. It quickly grew in popularity, due to the insanely fast and high-performance cars that raced there. It offered street racers a semi-legal way to street race. It also offered the benefit of major cash earnings. This grew the nation's attention and encouraged people to come race. -
Fast and the Furious
Fast and the Furious was a movie released, centered around street racing. It quickly became one of the most recognized movies made, and it encouraged a lot of people to get into the street racing scene. It not only popularized the cars in the movie, but the activities involved too. Promoting street racing as cool, and fun. -
1320video
1320video has made a major impact on the street racing community. This film crew has worked hard to film and photograph all kinds of major street racing events throughout the years. showing people behind-the-scenes footage of street racing. Popularizing street racing when they filmed this, which caused a surge of people wanting to start doing so as well. -
Ken Block and Hoonigan
Hoonigan was started by Ken Block, and stunt and motocross racer, who promoted crazy and dangerous stunts. He was known for his street drifting and racing around downtown areas, and his slogan "Kill All Tires". He posted racing videos often, and caused more people to watch his stuff and race themselves. he was world-renowned and very popular; therefore, lots of people watched him. -
Street Outlaws
Street Outlaws was a popular television show centered around street racing for cash. This show popularized street racing and promoted it, causing more people to want to go racing. This show was very popular and was something that most people knew of or recognized. -
Brian_636 bike racing/stunt rides
Brian_636 is a YouTuber and social media influencer who films street bike races and stunt rides. He films high-speed bike rides and bike racing on interstates. This shows people behind-the-scenes footage of these events, and this causes people to become more interested and want to participate. making this part of street racing more popular due to his millions of viewers. -
Electric cars
Electric cars are hated and loved in the racing community. Those people who hate them are encouraged to race and beat them, but find that they are difficult to beat. And those who love them are building them to race. This is making more people want to join in on the fun and participate in such races. -
COVID-19
The spread of COVID-19 opened a lot of street racing opportunities. The reduced traffic opened roadways and provided more places to race. The higher amount of free time on people's hands convinced more people to get into racing. This all brought more people into the "hobby". -
City "Takeovers"
These "Takeovers" are times when racers/tuners will come to abandoned parking lots and empty intersections in cities, and do donuts, street racing, and other activities. These takeovers made people want to join in and show off their cars, and the different capabilities of the cars. It drew more and more people from different areas, dimming the street racing, and making more people participate in the takeovers. -
Auto Club 2-Mile Oval Closure
This was a very popular and well-known racetrack and was used very often. It was closed down in 2023, which made racers resort to street racing if they wanted to race due to the lack of racetracks in the area. The closures of racetracks nation-wide are causing more and more people to street race. -
Ken Block's Death
Ken Block was a world-renowned race car driver and a professional street stunt driver. He influenced millions of people with his daring driving on and off the street. His content often promoted street racing, and when he died, most people would think that it would convince people to stop the racing, considering he died filming a stunt video. But most people took this as a challenge, to do better, and be safer about it. More and more people took to this style of driving. -
"Legal Street Races"
There have recently been multiple car clubs and communities hosting community-approved "legal street races," and this has brought the number of illegal races down, and allowed racers to race safely and legally. These events have been overseen by off-duty police officers and EMTs.