At one point in time, drag racing was pretty easy to map out geographically, and even today, it’s still a particuarly territorial sport, but the lines have become more blurred than they once were.

Southern California was the virtual birthplace of organized drag racing, and was the hotbed of the early days of nitromethane-fueled dragsters. While nitro racing permeated out across the country, the western United States was still the undisputed home of cackle, and until recent years when all of the NHRA’s top nitro teams moved to Indiana, California was still home to a majority of the Top Fuel and Funny Car teams.

Likewise, doorslammer racing was born in the East, with Super Stock, Stock, Junior Stock, and later, Pro Stock, all calling the New England states clear down to Florida home. 

More recently during the late 1980’s, the Pro Modified category came along in the IHRA, and while the class has gone a lot of places since that time, the east coast and particularly the Carolinas are still considered the home of the world’s fastest doorslammers. Street legal and small-tire racing, another more recently-formed genre of heads-up racing, is also an east coast product, and as best we can describe, shares joint custody between the northeast and the south, with strong contingents hailing from both regions over the last couple of decades since the hugely popular form of racing was born out of street racing and the Pro Street movement.

The map of drag racing today still looks much like it did in the formative years: there’s nostalgia nitro racing in the west, doorslammer racing in the east and south, and a lot of bracket racing in the middle. But it has become a truly national sport, and you’ll find any and all forms of cars and classes at tracks in every corner of the country on any given weekend.

The eastern half of the country is a toss-up, with a strong doorslammer contingent in the north, with some great nostalgia racing thrown in for good measure. It has the Yellow Bullet Nationals, the Shakedown, and some of the best single-venue racing programs in the nation at places like Cecil County, MIR, and Atco. 

The south, stretching clear to Texas, likewise boasts more doorslammer racing then you can shake a stick at, with grudge racing becoming particularly popular these days. It has Lights Out and No Mercy in Georgia, the World Street Nationals in Florida, and countless smaller outlaw events for Pro Modified, Radial, Outlaw 10.5, and the like.

The west, for its part, has remained strong despite losing its luster in the 1970’s and 80’s when its many tracks began closing up shop and professional drag racing went national. Nostalgia nitro racing calls the west home, and the region also boasts the Street Car Super Nationals, the PSCA, the WCHRA, and the NMCA West as part of a growing heads-up door scene that may one day rival it’s east coast counterpart. 

The midwest states, meanwhile, aren’t the true home of any specific form of racing, per se, but have been an integral part of the growth of the sport — be it the early days of nitro racing to today’s doorslammer movement — throughout its long history. 

In some cases, we’ve seen the states go to battle on the track, with north versus south-themed racing events, while the north, south, and west have battled tooth and nail for the performance crowns for years. It’s all in good fun, of course, but it proves that, like someone’s favorite football team, there’s plenty of pride in where the racers hail from.

So which region is best? Which one do you think has the best racing, the best classes, and the biggest events? Here’s your chance to paint your face