Carolina Thunder: A Geography of Southern Stock Car Racing

Abstract

Abstract Ask any Southern “good old boy” to name three things which are irrefutably of the region and he will likely list: grits, moonshine, and stock car racing. These elements of the popular culture have been largely ignored by most social geographers, much in the same manner that most other aspects of the popular culture of the contemporary American scene have remained unstudied. It may be argued, however, that for an understanding of the modern cultural geography of this country we must study not only the traditional past, but also the popular present. Stock car racing is clearly one of the most visible elements of the Southern popular culture and has developed not only an extensive following, but also a widespread mythology. But, is stock car racing a Southern phenomenon, or is this in itself a myth of the region? The principal goal of this paper will be to examine the origins and distribution of stock car racing to determine if the sport indeed has a Southern orientation today as is commonly believed.