‘Right to race’ laws and the battle over America’s local racetracks

Across the United States, the local auto racing tracks that have anchored rural and working-class communities for generations are disappearing. Some have lost out to real estate developers when suburban sprawl makes the land beneath them too valuable to ignore. Others are strangled, slowly, by noise complaints and nuisance lawsuits filed by residents who moved to the area long after the track had been built. Now, state legislatures are pushing back. From Georgia to Wisconsin, lawmakers have been introducing so-called “right to race” bills. Over the past year, at least 13 state legislatures have put forward bills shielding racetracks from nuisance lawsuits filed by property owners who moved into the area after the track was built. These follow the passage of similar legislation in Iowa and North Carolina in 2025. As a historian and analyst of American stock car racing, I’ve been watching this legislation closely. The argument being made inside these statehouses is a legal one. But what’s really being contested is something older and harder to legislate: whose idea of a place is preserved, and whose vision is pushed to its margins. What these laws do For nearby residents, the impacts of a racetrack can be difficult to…

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