It was way back on 28^th November 1895 that the first American automobile race was conducted under the aegis of the Chicago Times Herald. Le Petit Journal had also organized a race from Paris to Bordeaux in France and the winner was Emile Levassor. Unfortunately, his car was not a mandatory four-seater and as such he was disqualified. A year prior to this race, a reliability test race to assess the performance of the first ever petrol-fuelled cars was organized by the magazine.

Basically any race involves getting from one place to the other in the shortest possible time and before any of the other participants gets there. Different types of races involve different types of modes to cover the distance. Automobile racing, besides having a rich history, provides the ultimate in excitement and enjoyment.     

Automobile racing or auto sport is basically for racing cars whereas motor racing or motor sport might also include motorboat racing and air racing. This is highly commercialized and is probably the most spectacular sport in the world.

The first trophy in auto racing was the Vanderbilt Cup and it was awarded to Frank Duryea on 2^nd November, 1895 when he won the first auto race in America over a 54.36-mile (87.48 km) course in Chicago, Illinois. He clocked a time of 10 hr and 23 min and he sped past three petrol-fuelled cars and two electric cars.  

Many international races were organized by the French automobile club ACF between Paris and other cities in Europe. However, in 1903, Marcel Renault lost his life in an accident in a Paris-Madrid race and this led to the suspension of these races. The race was stopped and open-road racing was banned by the French government as eight people had lost their lives.

In the 1930s a lot of development took place in the field of high-priced road cars as distinct from the racing cars. Aerodynamic design was adopted by most of these road cars such as Mercedes-Benz, Delahaye, Bugatti and Delage. Engines fitted with supercharges and producing 450 kW were used in such cars and in order to make the cars lightweight, aluminium alloys were used extensively. As opposed to the current regulations of racing, a maximum weight of only 750 Kg was allowed.

Modern technology has added a lot of innovations to the designs of modern day racing cars and in order to increase bondage to the track and produce down force, aerofoil wings in the front and in the rear are added and the wheels are not covered. Open-wheel single-seater high-speed racing is now the most prevalent motorsport.

The most expensive and the most famous variety of single-seater racing is the Formula One World Championship. Leading international car and engine manufacturers lock horns in the race to develop the best technology and driver skill in this annual championship with some teams spending more than 201 million US dollars per year to excel in this sport.