If you love automotive road racing or are interested in learning more, you need to check out the best car road racing magazines. Eight highly recommended and popular ones will start our list, which includes the title, a summary, and why these selections are great. Some honorable mentions and books will follow at the end.
Are you ready to find some new reading material—the best car road racing magazines? Start your engines!
Motor Trend
Motor Trend has 70 years of experience and counting in the world of automobiles. This magazine gives you a thorough analysis of automotive information while tackling new angles and innovative ideas. They cover every style, from hot rods to hybrids, and give insight into what it’s like driving new cars, alongside service tips, road tests, and racing news.
Not only will you be able to discover what these experts’ opinions are about specific cars, but you can read reviews from car owners elaborating on whether or not a certain vehicle is worth your time and worthwhile. Additionally, Motor Trend covers new technology, such as electric models.
Motor Trend is one of the most recognizable car magazines in the world. They have a corresponding YouTube channel and website to complement their printed magazines that are published monthly. Their detailed hands-on testing sets them apart from competitors, and their evaluations of popular cars help their audience make smart decisions in the future with this newly acquired knowledge.
Car and Driver
Car and Driver is the publication to have if you’re a car enthusiast. This magazine gives you up-to-date information about the latest trends and insightful articles that break down cars, trucks, vans, and sports cars. Furthermore, Car and Driver analyze both foreign and domestic manufacturers. They publish how-to guides and reviews of new models. Additionally, Car and Driver includes road tests and updates in the vehicle industry.
Authors cover international races, focusing on the automobiles participating. With a subscriber count of 1.2 million readers, Car and Driver is one of the most well-known magazines and holds a 60+ year history. Their quality reviews and advice regarding popular and exotic cars accompanied by clever and funny writing make a wonderful subscription to look forward to monthly. Their photography is also worth mentioning, and you can be assured they cover all the important news in this field.
Hot Rod
Hot Rod tailors to hard-core gearheads and muscle car fans with their impactful words and suggestive pictures. They take an exciting approach to worldwide classic cars. This magazine delves into the history of what cars forged America into one of the world’s largest automotive producers. Hot Rods also provides entire body photos of favorite, notorious cars over the past decades that you’d be lucky to find anywhere else.
Seeing that Hot Rod strictly focuses on classic, muscle, and race cars, they are famous for organizing the Hot Rod Magazine Championship Drag Races in the 1960s. With about 650,000 followers, Hot Rod is one of the more popular magazines in the US. For those reasons, it earns the bronze medal on this list.
Four Wheeler
Four Wheeler has been a consistent place to find information for off-road drivers over the past 50 years. This magazine has reviews, tips, and lively content that makes each article interesting. They additionally address breaking news for new models, alongside restoration advice and guides.
What’s great about Four Wheeler is that their maintenance tutorials are partnered with pictures, so readers can compare their work to professional manufacturers or mechanics. Their realistic comparisons are ideal for people who enjoy road racing away from the typical road.
Top Gear
Top Gear publishes a monthly magazine relating to its popular television show. These experts have 25 years of experience backing them and feature great columns with in-depth features of cars and quality writing by professional hosts.
Their approach to writing is witty, making Top Gear fun and enjoyable to read. If you’re a fan of the show, then this magazine is a definite must to add to your collection.
Autocar
Autocar is the world’s oldest car magazine, maintaining its publication ever since 1895. Their top-notch news content, writing style, and photography continue to endure over the years. The detailed road tests included within the magazine are favored by car enthusiasts.
In addition, Autocar’s quality is consistent, and they cover an abundance of content, careful to remain market-specific so the reader can relate. They address international news, spanning from the UK to China to India. Their writing is top quality and is a perfect all-in-one for news, reviews, and more.
Autoweek
Autoweek is a popular, well-respected, and bi-weekly magazine that has published news in the automobile world for 60 years. They aim to provide readers with articles, detailed information about racing, and lesser-known car knowledge.
Autoweek is one of the most circulated car magazines in North America, covering trendy topics and reviews. Their publishing frequency makes them a rival for other competitors, and subscribers favor the increase. Autoweek is high quality with spot-on images and technical details that you might not get in other magazines.
Automobile
Automobile is published by Motor Trend Group and is a lifestyle publication, with a little over 300,000 subscribers. Their approach to cars is down-to-earth with approachable reviews and descriptions of driving experiences. They share the quality of vehicles, and yearly, announce cars for their “Automobile of the Year award” (which has now become “Automobile All-Stars”).
These events are designed for the writers and owners to share their thoughts on the best vehicles. They also set aside pages for older cars that might interest collectors or other car fans. Their content standard is high, for both writing and photos, and they guarantee an excellent reading experience.
Honorable Mentions
Below are some final thoughts and other suggestions that you could check out. Remember that there are plenty of biographies and nonfiction stories out there in regards to car racing, but some realistic fiction covers this topic. Depending on what you’re in the mood for, undoubtedly, there will be something out there to satisfy your tastes.
Road & Track
This final magazine is published monthly and is a popular source of automotive insights, with information designed for average car admirers. Road & Track has been around since the late 1940s, publishing detailed reviews and quality discussions that focus on regular cars as well as motorsports.
Road & Track is popular, informative, and interesting, with comparisons between race and production cars to answer any audience questions.
Books
National Speedway Directory (2012)
This novel is a racer atlas and reviews 37 years of experience in car racing. The pages list directions to the hundreds of racetracks in America alongside statistics, dimensions, and course maps. You will be able to find tracks you never were aware existed, and even though this information can be found online, having a hard-cover book has a certain charm.
National Speedway Directory proves that no matter where you live, or where you are visiting, there is bound to be a group of supporters watching a race and cheering for their racer to win.
Going Faster! Master the Art of Race Driving (1997)
This novel dives into the history of Skip Barber’s instructor and driving coach, Carl Lopez, who created this book to share his racing wisdom. Much like other racers, Barber created a driving school with a high reputation to uphold.
In these pages, you’ll find contributions from other teachers and drivers, like Mario Andretti. This book details how to pass, how to learn a track and analyze a lap to find slow points for anyone interested in getting in the mind of a racer.
