The American Prohibition boosted illegal activity, and created NASCAR.
Fast cars and alcohol are one hell of a combination. During the 1920’s and into the 1930’s, America instituted the 18th Amendment, it was a time of peace but illegal activity thrived. The 18th Amendment outlawed the sale and consumption of alcoholic beverages in the United States. This did not stop the average people at this time from continuing this practice. In a nut shell, illegal activity thrived and with the use of modified cars, NASCAR would be created.
Many aspects contributed to the boost in illegal activity during the Prohibition. At the time people realized that large amounts of profit could be made at the time. Alcohol was in demand, and people did almost everything to get it.
The gangsters from the 1920’s and 1930’s are some of the most iconic people of the time. Those people set the bar for the black market in the United States. The gangsters were able to control most of the alcoholic distribution and sales in the large cities. This was highly illegal but sales were crazy. Gangsters kept generating new ideas on how to profit from this amendment.
Doctors would jump on the bandwagon as well. The medical field was not subject to the alcohol ban because that is used widely within the practice. Doctors would be able to profit from the amendment because they would be paid off to write prescriptions. This again was highly illegal and generated large sums of money.
With the high demand for the illegal drinks, transportation of the alcohol for sale would evolve from simple transportation to the use of the newly adapted automobile. Cars were a new thing at this time. They were beginning to be widely used and it transformed the transportation system. The American Prohibition helped create NASCAR because the cars used were modified. The cars were made to be faster then the police and made to handle better as well. Eventually the people who illegally transported the alcohol would begin to race the cars they modified. This would lay the foundation for NASCAR, since it is a sport based on racing high performance cars. The engines were modified along with taking out unnecessary weight.
Essentially, the prohibition boosted illegal activity within the United States and with that created one of America’s greatest sports.
Sources:
http://prohibitionincanada.blogspot.com/p/smuggling-bootegging-and-something.html
https://www.theguardian.com/film/2012/aug/26/lawless-prohibition-gangsters-speakeasies
https://www.carkeys.co.uk/news/the-story-of-how-moonshiners-created-the-performance-car
http://theroaringtwentieshistory.blogspot.com/2010/06/prohibition-and-speakeasies.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eighteenth_Amendment_to_the_United_States_Constitution
http://www.laits.utexas.edu/jaime/cwp4/esg/smugglehistory.html
Rowan Counterintuitive 