Automobile Racing

Automobile racing has never been contested at the Olympic Games, even as a demonstration sport. However, at Paris 1900, auto racing was contested during the sporting events held in conjunction with the Exposition Universelle. As it is difficult to know which events were Olympic in that year, some historians list the auto racing events in their records. At London 1908, automobile racing was on the preliminary programme, but the sport was not contested and there have been no moves to include it in the Olympic Games since.

Internationally, automobile racing is governed by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), which was founded as the Association Internationale des Automobile Clubs Reconnus (AIACR) on 20 June 1904 (rebranded to the current FIA in 1946), and has 245 motoring and motor sport club members in 149 countries as of January 2026.

Until recently, automobile racing was actually precluded by the Olympic Charter, in which Rule 47.4.2 stated, “Sports, disciplines or events in which performance depends essentially on mechanical propulsion are not acceptable.” However, in more recent versions of the Charter, this distinction has been removed. In fact, the Buenos Aires 2018 Youth Olympics brought an auto racing demonstration event, a mixed team karting competition.