Lost motorsports venues
Closed speedways, road courses, dirt tracks and drag strips. Racing facilities need large tracts of land, so many closed sites were redeveloped into housing, retail or logistics parks.
57 venues
View on map →John F. Kennedy Stadium
Built for the 1926 Sesquicentennial, Philadelphia's huge municipal stadium hosted the Army-Navy Game, Eagles football, title fights and Live Aid. Condemned in 1989, it was demolished in 1992.
Lakewood Speedway
A one-mile dirt oval at Atlanta's Lakewood fairgrounds, raced from 1917 to 1979 and known as the Indianapolis of the South, whose site is now partly covered by Lakewood Amphitheatre's parking.
Langhorne Speedway
A fearsome near-circular one-mile oval in Bucks County that hosted AAA, USAC and early NASCAR racing from 1926 until 1971, after which the land was quickly cleared for retail development.
Legion Ascot Speedway
Legion Ascot Speedway was a 5/8-mile oval in El Sereno, Los Angeles, that ran from 1924 to 1936 and earned a reputation as a killer track. A school and housing now cover the site.
Lions Drag Strip
Lions Drag Strip was a quarter-mile drag strip in Wilmington, beside Long Beach, that ran from 1955 to 1972. The Harbor Department reclaimed the land, which later became a container terminal.
Los Angeles Motordrome
The Los Angeles Motordrome in Playa del Rey was a one-mile board track that opened in April 1910 and was abandoned after a 1913 fire. Automobile and motorcycle speed records were set there.
Manzanita Speedway
Manzanita Speedway was a dirt track in southwest Phoenix that raced from August 1951 to April 2009. It hosted USAC sprint cars, NASCAR Winston West races and World of Outlaws events.
Marchbanks Speedway
Marchbanks Speedway, later Hanford Motor Speedway, was a dirt and then paved 1.4-mile tri-oval near Hanford, California, that hosted NASCAR and USAC Indy car races. It closed around 1970 and was torn down in 1984.
Mark's Stadium
Mark's Stadium in North Tiverton, Rhode Island, opened in 1922 as the home of the Fall River Marksmen of the American Soccer League. It was torn down in the 1950s and the site is now an empty lot.
Meadowdale International Raceway
Meadowdale International Raceway was a 3.27-mile road course near Carpentersville, Illinois, that ran from 1958 to 1969 and was known for its banked Monza Wall turn. The site is now the Raceway Woods preserve.
Michigan State Fairgrounds Speedway
The Michigan State Fairgrounds Speedway was a one-mile dirt oval in Detroit, built for horse racing in 1899, that hosted AAA and USAC Indy car races and two NASCAR Grand National races. Its grandstand was condemned in 1971 and demolished in 2001.
Middle Georgia Raceway
Middle Georgia Raceway was a half-mile paved oval in Byron, Georgia, that held NASCAR Grand National races from 1966 to 1971 and closed in the mid-1980s. It is also remembered for the 1970 Atlanta Pop Festival held beside it.
Myrtle Beach Speedway
Myrtle Beach Speedway was a 0.538-mile asphalt oval on U.S. 501 that opened as a dirt track in 1958 and held its last race in August 2020. It hosted NASCAR's top series from 1958 to 1965 and the Busch Series from 1988 to 2000.
Nazareth Speedway
A Lehigh Valley racing site, associated with the Andretti family, whose paved one-mile oval hosted CART, IRL and NASCAR Busch racing from 1987 until International Speedway Corporation closed it in 2004.
Occoneechee Speedway
Occoneechee Speedway was a dirt track in Hillsborough, North Carolina, that hosted NASCAR from its first season in 1949 until 1968. The abandoned oval survives in the woods as a historic trail site.
Ontario Motor Speedway
A 2.5-mile oval built in the image of Indianapolis that operated in Ontario, California from 1970 to 1980 before financial failure led to its sale to Chevron and demolition for the Ontario Center development.
Orange County International Raceway
Orange County International Raceway in Irvine, California, was a drag strip and road course complex that opened on August 5, 1967, and closed on October 30, 1983. The Bob Bondurant driving school was founded there in 1968.
Paramount Ranch Racetrack
Paramount Ranch Racetrack was a 2-mile road course on a movie ranch in the Santa Monica Mountains used in 1956 and 1957. Fatal crashes at its last meet ended racing there.
Raleigh Speedway
Raleigh Speedway was a one-mile oval north of Raleigh, North Carolina, that opened in 1952 and held NASCAR Grand National races until 1958. It was demolished in 1967.
Riverside International Raceway
A Southern California road circuit that from 1957 to 1989 hosted NASCAR, Can-Am, Trans-Am, IMSA and a 1960 Formula One Grand Prix before being replaced by the Moreno Valley Mall and surrounding development.
Riverside Park Speedway
Riverside Park Speedway was a quarter-mile paved oval inside Riverside Park amusement park in Agawam, Massachusetts, that ran modified stock cars from 1948 to 1999. It was demolished when the park became Six Flags New England.
Rockingham Park
New England's first Thoroughbred track, which raced in Salem, New Hampshire from 1906 until 2009 and closed in 2016 to make way for the Tuscan Village development.
Roosevelt Raceway
Roosevelt Raceway in Westbury, Long Island, began as an auto racing circuit in 1936 and became a landmark night harness track from 1940 to 1988. The site is now shopping centers, condominiums and apartments.
Roosevelt Stadium
Roosevelt Stadium was a WPA-built Art Deco stadium on Jersey City's Newark Bay waterfront, where Jackie Robinson made his professional debut in 1946 and the Brooklyn Dodgers played part-time in 1956-57.