The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing, LLC (NASCAR) is an American auto racing sanctioning and operating company that is best known for stock car racing. It is considered to be one of the top-ranked motorsports organizations in the world and is one of the largest spectator sports leagues in America. The privately owned company was founded by Bill France Sr. in 1948. The company is headquartered in Daytona Beach, Florida. Each year, NASCAR sanctions over 1,500 races at over 100 tracks in 48 US states, as well as in Canada, Mexico, Brazil, and Europe.
NASCAR, and stock car racing as a whole, traces its roots back to moonshine runners during Prohibition, who grew to compete against each other in a show of pride. In 1935, Bill France Sr. established races in Daytona Beach, with the hope that people would come to watch races and that racers would race for him, as other organizers tended to fleece the winners of their payouts. This was a success, and the series was founded in 1948. Races were held in several divisions, which eventually morphed into what is the "ladder": the Cup Series at the top, the O'Reilly Auto Parts Series second, and the Truck Series third, with smaller series spread out below. Chevrolet, Ford, and Toyota compete in each series. RAM also competes in the Truck Series.
The vast majority of NASCAR drivers are American, but drivers from Canada, Mexico, Europe, Australasia, and other places have competed. All Cup Series races are held in the United States and Mexico. There are 36 points-paying races in a season, along with the pre-season Clash and mid-season All-Star race. NASCAR runs races primarily on ovals, including superspeedways, short tracks, and previously dirt tracks, but also road courses and street circuits.
Richard Petty holds the Cup Series wins record with 200. He is tied with Dale Earnhardt and Jimmie Johnson for the championship record, with seven each. Entering the 2026 season, Kyle Larson is the defending Cup Series champion.
In the 1920s and 1930s, Daytona Beach supplanted France and Belgium as the preferred location for world land speed records. After a historic race between Ransom Olds and Alexander Winton in 1903, 15 records were set on what became the Daytona Beach Road Course between 1905 and 1935. Daytona Beach had become synonymous with fast cars in 1936. Drivers raced on a 4.1-mile (6.6 km) course, consisting of a 1.5–2.0-mile (2.4–3.2 km) stretch of beach as one straightaway, and a narrow blacktop beachfront highway, State Road A1A, as the other. The two straights were connected by two tight, deeply rutted and sand covered turns at each end.
Stock car racing in the United States has its origins in bootlegging during Prohibition, when drivers ran bootleg whiskey made primarily in the Appalachian region of the United States. Bootleggers needed to distribute their illicit products, and they typically used small, fast vehicles to better evade the police. Many of the drivers would modify their cars for speed and handling, as well as increased cargo capacity.
The repeal of Prohibition in 1933 dried up some of their business, but by then the people of the American South had developed a taste for moonshine, and a number of the drivers continued "runnin' shine", this time evading the revenue agents also known as "revenuers" who were attempting to tax their operations. The cars continued to improve, and by the late 1940s, races featuring these cars were being run for pride and profit. These races were popular entertainment in the rural Southern United States, and they are most closely associated with the Wilkes County region of North Carolina. Most races in those days were of modified cars. Street vehicles were lightened and reinforced.
Mechanic Bill France Sr. moved to Daytona Beach, Florida, from Washington, D.C., in 1935 to escape the Great Depression. He was familiar with the history of the area from the land speed record attempts. France entered the 1936 Daytona event, finishing fifth. He took over running the course in 1938. He promoted a few races before World War II.
France believed people would enjoy watching stock cars race. Drivers were frequently victimized by unscrupulous promoters who would leave events with all the money before drivers were paid. On December 14, 1947, France began talks with other influential racers and promoters at the Ebony Bar at the Streamline Hotel in Daytona Beach, Florida, that ended with the formation of NASCAR on February 21, 1948.
The first Commissioner of NASCAR was Erwin "Cannonball" Baker, a former stock car, motorcycle, and open-wheel racer who competed in the Indianapolis 500 and set over one hundred land speed records. Baker earned most of his fame for his transcontinental speed runs and would prove a car's worth by driving it from New York to Los Angeles. After his death, the famous transcontinental race the "Cannonball Run" and the film that was inspired by it were both named in his honor.
Baker is enshrined in the Automotive Hall of Fame, the Motorcycle Hall of Fame, and the Indianapolis Motor Speedway Hall of Fame. This level of honor and success in each diverse racing association earned Baker the title of "King of the Road".
In the early 1950s, the United States Navy stationed Bill France Jr. at the Moffett Federal Airfield in northern California. His father asked him to look up Bob Barkhimer in San Jose, California. Barkhimer was a star of midget car racing from the World War II era, and later ran about 22 different speedways as the head of the California Stock Car Racing Association. Young Bill developed a relationship with Bob Barkhimer and his partner, Margo Burke. He went to events with them, stayed weekends with them and generally became very familiar with racing on the west coast. "Barky", as he was called by his friends, journeyed to Daytona Beach and met with Bill France Sr. In the spring of 1954, NASCAR became a stock car sanctioning body on the Pacific Coast under Barky.
Wendell Scott was the first African-American to win a race in the Grand National Series, NASCAR's highest level. He was posthumously inducted into the NASCAR Hall of Fame in Charlotte, North Carolina, January 30, 2015.
On March 8, 1936, a collection of drivers gathered at Daytona Beach, Florida. The drivers brought coupes, hardtops, convertibles, and sports cars to compete in an event to determine the fastest cars, and best drivers. Throughout the race, the heavier cars got bogged down in the sand, while the lightweight Fords navigated the ruts of the course, eventually claiming the top 6 finishes for the race. Of the 27 cars that started the event, only 10 managed to survive the ordeal, as officials halted the event 10 miles (16 km) short of the scheduled 250-mile (400 km) distance. Driver Milt Marion was declared the winner, and a young Bill France placed 5th at the end of the day.
By early 1947, Bill France saw the potential for a unified series of racing competitors. France announced the foundation of the "National Championship Stock Car Circuit", otherwise known as NCSCC. France approached the American Automobile Association, or AAA, in hopes of obtaining financial backing for the venture. When the AAA declined support of the venture, France proceeded to announce a set of rules and awards for the NCSCC. France declared that the winner of the 1947 NCSCC season would receive $1,000 (equivalent to $14,400 in 2025) and a trophy. The season began in January 1947 at the Daytona Beach track and concluded in Jacksonville that December. Nearly 40 events were held during the season, and attendance often exceeded the venue's capacity. The competitors were paid as promised. Fonty Flock was declared the champion after winning 7 events of the 24 that he entered. Bill France delivered the prize money and 4-foot-high trophy to Flock at the end of the season, along with $3,000 in prize money (equivalent to $43,300 in 2025) to other drivers who competed throughout the season.
At the end of the 1947 season, Bill France announced that there would be a series of meetings held at the Streamline Hotel in Daytona Beach beginning on December 14, 1947. At 1:00 pm, France called to order the 35 men who represented the NCSCC on the top floor of the hotel. The meeting was the first of four seminars in which France would outline his vision of an organized group of race car drivers. The name originally chosen for the series was "National Stock Car Racing Association"; when it was pointed out that that name was already in use by a rival sanctioning body, "National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing", proposed by mechanic Red Vogt, was selected as the organization's name.