Beginning of Essay
International competitiveness, testing the capabilities of specially designed automobiles and the skill of their drivers, over tracks and courses of differing lengths and construction, this is . The first car race considered is the one held in France in July 1894, ....

Middle of Essay
.... corners, from 200 m to 4000 m in length. The difference between road and track racing ultimately led also to different vehicle construction; four major types of racing cars are now built. Pure racing machines, such as those used in Grand Prix\Formula 1 and in Indycar, are built for power and endurance at speeds of more than 320 km/h (200 MPH). In the past stock cars used to be production automobiles modified for track racing, but are built now solely for the purpose of racing. Sports cars used for racing, such as rallies, may be either rebuilt production vehicles or pure racing machines. Drag racers are cars built to accelerate rapidly to high speed ....