Perhaps predictably in a book published in 2014 that examines how motor sports relate to American culture, half of the essays here are about NASCAR. James Wright's essay opening the volume, "The NASCAR Paradox," suggests that the growing popularity of NASCAR – once a stronghold sport of the American South but now the second most viewed sport across the United States next to football – does not say that the South is becoming more like the rest of the country but instead the shift "reveals a nation becoming more like the South" (4). Taking a historical approach, Dan Pierce's essay, "'What Is Your Racket, Brother?'" traces how Charlotte, North Carolina became the "home" of NASCAR over Atlanta, Georgia – represented by the establishment there of NASCAR'S Hall of Fame in Charlotte – by showing how the latter city purposely rid itself of known bootlegger race car drivers in the mid-twentieth century.