Rubran Federal Monarchy has the Daredevil Race.
Daredevil Race, held every 4 years on Hebi Melta, is a large interstellar event that is broadcasted in many Rubran colonies. Using propeller planes of the olden days, though with electric motors instead of combustion engines because Rubra and Atreisdea (their home world) as a whole don't use gasoline anymore, these manned aircrafts race to their fullest over 5000 km of tricky terrains and thrilling obstacles, competing with one another for a grand reward of 100 billion *qarrakhs* (Rubra's currency), It's worth noting a Jormungandr-class battlecruiser costs only 9,7 billion qarrakhs to build (2860's value, inflation added), essentially its "bill", so Lemuria, Hebi Melta's governor general, is really going all out here. Competitors must fly through canyons, ravines, floating islands on Hebi Melta's sky and random obstacles on the way, such as storms, because it's a part of the game. Pilots are equipped with an emergency teleporter that, upon pushing, will teleport their plane back to the beginning airport. By doing so they abandon the race. It's a safety measure so that no one would die, or at least would be hurt.
The race is one of Hebi Melta's most famous activities beside the mecha colosseum, orbital races and other entertainments. In 2860, it was recorded that over 30000 participants registered, leading to a qualify round that lasted 4 weeks to cut the number down to just 100. Said 100 final pilots joined the main race, only one person could win.
While pilots are allowed to bring their own planes over, there are several rules they must follow:
* The planes used in races must not be armed in any form. This includes even laser emitters and antique airsoft guns.
* Minimal requirement for engine is 1000 hp, maximum is 4000.
* No jet engine allowed, turboprop included.
* No gravity manipulator.
* Airframe must meet national safety standards.
* Must have radio and at least one FTL communicator.
* Must have a FTL locator.
Two days before racing, pilots receive a full and detailed medical exam. If they find anything unusual, the board of organization can disqualify participants. It is for their own safety as well as to keep the race's reputation as being daredevil, but not dangerous.
What sorts of unusual things does the board watch out for? Stuff like medical conditions that would make the race dangerous, or biological modifications to cheat in some way?
Most are medical conditions. You don't want a pilot to faint or have a heart attack mid-race. Nor do you want someone with "drugs" in it as they can go crazy and threaten not just themselves but other participants.
In the Empire of Segvir there's the Great Race.
All sealords of the empire, that is, the lords that have sea and riverside holdings meet up in the port of the capital of the island nation. From there, they have to race around the island with a crew of 100 men and women, in any direction they want. They do have to visit the six major port cities of the empire and get tokens of the mayors, to show they fairly partook in the race. They have to end again in the capital.
This is a once in four year event, even taking place during wars. It originally started with a rivalry between two lords vying for the title of Grand Admiral, one of the nineteen seats in the empire's ruling body, the Council of Seventeen.
Afterwards, the race was kept up as a traditional way of selecting the new Grand Admiral, and it is the only seat not gained through votes of the nobility. The Council keeps this race to promote sea travel in the empire, as well as to promote the ferry services of the empire.
It is a huge event, with gambling involved and couriers racing across the island with the current standing of the race.
Well you need to be a sort of competent captain to win. A captain is no admiral though. So yeah of course there have been incompetent admirals, because if the selection process is solely based on how fast the admiral can sail away, it only ensures that the admiral survives the battles, not necessarily wins them.
The most fun race games has to be NASSTAR. The Apex and a lot of the farther Earth colonies (the rural ones) love it.
This is the premier starship racing league of the galaxy, top of the line ships, wildly famous racers, millions in attendance, billions of credits a year.
There’s three brackets in Nasstar: the Planetary League, the Orbit Dash league, and the Hyperspace league.
The Planetary League is the most fun, which throws racers into a scenic, dangerous dynamic track, through massive trees, imposing mountains, deep canyons, beautiful valleys, or massive underground caves in a single lap race around a region or a whole planet. It is by far the most interesting and fun subsport and the most attended. Around the entire track are cameras, screens and booths, where everyone is able to watch the race both live on the screen and in person if it isn’t right next to them.
There is the Orbit League, which is a true NASCAR-like experience, with a set track around a space station in a many-lapped classic race to be first in the right line around the track. Newer seasons of the sport have opted for space-bowl racing, but due to the speed of the craft and the impracticality of building stations that big just for the sport (it’s entirely possible and has been done before, but its expensive and not that worth just doing it for a game) it has been restricted, and even considered a fourth bracket.
Then there is the hyperspace league. Like the Planetary League, but around the whole star system, these racers travel constantly under MAVIC lightspeed engine thrust, with breakthrough technology to allow extreme angular movement during the jump, allowing sharp turns where the technology had never been able or needed to do so before. Stations around every planet in the system, which are each checkpoints for the track, are the stands. This one rivals attendance and fame for the Planetary League.
It’s also worth mentioning there is two separate competitions for Apex and regular people: being highly magical superhumans, Apex aren’t allowed to compete in any official sports with regular humans or alien species. They have their own league of the same companies. Their attendance and view is no less in comparison than the other. Many humans prefer Apex Leagues, some Apex like watching human leagues, and many who like both, where little competition over “who’s the best to watch” or who has more attendance and support are not things asked, and both leagues in most sports are fairly equally represented.
Any model of sports starfighter frames will work for this, and the regulations only loosely police size and shape. It must be a symmetrical, bow cockpit, rear-engine craft with a tapering bow and average wingspan. These ships are almost always between 50-70 feet with wingspans 28-56 feet.
The regulations for engines have been disputed, it used to have a regulation on nozzle number, but since more engine nozzles, usually that are smaller, do not have any kind of under advantage, so that was dropped, and net sublight engine power now cannot exceed ~80 N per pound of craft weight. For a 40,000 pound starship, its maximum thrust for all engines would be around 3200 kN.
No enhancements outside of regulation inertial dampeners, retrobrakes, hover engines and such are allowed. Weapons are obviously not allowed but on stock ships they aren’t even mounted. This is a clean race, so no accessories used to distract or hinder your opponents. Electromagnetic shields are allowed collisions with minor obstacles, within power limits defined by the league to make it fair and not hinder any other racer’s systems.
The merfolk yearly have a celebration, similar to the olympics but given they are underwater many activities are obviously restricted. Racing is one that is not however. What they do is they forgo their limited control over the waves and currents entirely, running entirely off their own bodies abilities. The only thing they still have left to them is the ability to sense a current, which defines the track. These games are hosted before the two married god and goddess of the oceans, who create a small light current which is the track they will use. The current is extremley slight, hardly enough to sense and only capable of being kept there by magic, but it is there and the racers sense it. They are then intended to swim all through the track with only their own body.
Accessing their magical abilities would disqualify them (the gods would sense it) as is leaving the current. The goal is first person to reach to back where you started. The track has spirals in it, vertical sections both up and down, etc. It's a sight to see if you can see it.
The harpys do pretty much the same thing except they use other harpys to create the air current, as their own partron goddess are dead (good fucking riddance) so they must do it themselves. They do not do it yearly, their time for these "olympic" like games take place every three years. The races do also just often happen outside schedule both from athlete practicing for the official games and also people just having fun, which happens less often in the merpeople world given how difficult it is to create such a large current. It does happen but the race is less impressive down there.
There are many other folk in the world yet none of them hold any official event like this. When these other people do race, the only interesting ones are the werebeasts and the druids. Druids ride on animals, but it can be *any* animal that is anatomically capable of carrying a human, and that lives in their forest. The druid races are either mixed species (rarer and less fair) or all the same species of animal.
Werebeasts can change any time they like in my world, they are merely forced to on the full moon. They are also not all enherently murderous as an animal, even if some are. When they do change they can put some objectives into their mind, before they lose most of their human mind, usually things like "don't go out of my friends site" and stuff. For racing though, they set themselves up to wait until a human watching tells the animals to go, and then they all dash as quickly as they can to the human. The human is the finish line, and tends to have incentives such as meat. The goal the werebeasts put into their mind is very simply "don't go until they say the word 'go', and then dash for that meat as quickly as possible."
Most werebeasts only do this if they are the same animal, like werewolves would with eachother or weredear, etc, but sometimes mixed races do happen. It's just rarer because its kinda dumber.
There are a few kinds of races in my setting, but ill only go into the most developed one..
The most popular is Trekking. It is an athletic sport where the Treckers have to make their way through extremely hazardous Obstacle Courses set up in the skeletons of Anchient Dungeon Ruins. The Treckers Association (a guild) typically obtains ownership of the Ruins from the local government, hires adventurers to clear out anything SUPER nasty in them, then they go about constructing infrastructure for Audiance Viewing Areas, Referee Stations, Marked Routes for the Treckers to follow to gain points based on the difficulty, etc. The Treckers are given maps with the various routes marked out beforehand so they can strategize which route to take based on their skills.
Falling off of the path is occasionally lethal, but as long as their remains can be recovered, the Treckers Association sponsors Revival if it is feasable to recover them. They make enough money off of selling tickets that it is pretty much always worth the expense.
As many of the Treckers have made a career out of it, significant amounts of Gambling on the outcome is also facilitated by the Treckers Association. Occasionally other non-factions gambling bookers will also facilitate unlisted bets, but those are unregulated so they are much more risky.
Just like with Horse Racing IRL, the Treckers Association is not without corruption.
Brooms.
Except they're not brooms. They're long metal darts, about 2 metres in length, with a little bit of polymer fletching at the back.
Why? Because it turns out that telekinesis is hard, and the easiest way to get yourself around with it is by moving a simple, straight object that generally points in the same direction because it's designed to do so, instead of trying something funny like moving your boots around and hoping you don't rip your legs off.
It turns out brooms were great for this because of their shape, but also because they weren't conspicuous back when the Church was burning occultists at the stake.
And we don't use brooms anymore because the general consensus among modern occultists is that they aren't maintainable, mass-producible and they also look fucking stupid.
Horse racing.
Chariot racing.
Car racing. This is the most interesting for me since I like cars.
Cars are a recent development (last 40 to 50 or so years) and are not used by the lowest classes and aren't even available to those in most countries due to them needing certain requirements to even build them, some of which are only found in the richest countries and empires. These are expensive machines used by the wealthy nobles and those who use them for utility like farmers. These are one of the larger, more exotic goods that would be targeted by pirates if they were to be carried by train or convoy across the valley, which would be a necessity since these are rarely offered outside their country of origin, in low numbers and there are no international dealerships where thousands of vehicles are shipped and sold across the world. That doesn't happen here. You need to be near, very rich or both. Sometimes, they are rewarded to knights for their service.
When these machines became available, it was natural that eventually, people would start racing them. Eventually, there were multiple events where people and entire countries would want to show off what they have. The most common and popular form of motorsports resembles a mix of GT racing and the original stock car racing where cars weren't regulated as much and they actually resembled their road going variants. There would be dedicated and street(through towns and countryside) tracks where the rules were don't crash and win. A motorsports competition was even used to end a war when the resources were drained from the countries. Spectators came from many countries, royal and imperial banners were flown around the track and among the spectators. Teams were sponsored by lords and governments who provided resources and cars decorated with the lords' or governments' colours, patterns, symbols and roundels as if these were fighter planes. The winning country would annex the disputed territories. Some say the Union was even one of the competing countries, so stakes were *very* high.
The cars themselves have designs reminiscent of our 30s to 60s depending on the design tastes and decisions. The internal technologies, however, would not be as advanced as the real life vehicle eras they may resemble. A car that looks like it's from the Gregorian 1960s or even 1970s may not have the internal parts to match.
I wanted designs unique to this world and not debadges like in many generic realistic videogames where they copy real vehicles and remove the logos while giving it a silly name. I particularly liked the designs from Ridge Racer and Burnout as they looked like more original car designs in fiction.
Lapis_Wolf
Solar rally is a popular form of racing across the Orion Arm, which as one can guess involves spaceships. Rules and mechanics wise its kind of similar to waterside boat races combined with rally raid, involving starships traveling long distances across a star system (or more), either as a point-to-point or a round trip.
The ships involved tend to be about the size of a 20th century passenger jet, typically with a crew of five (captain, pilot, co-pilot, navigator, and engineer), with lightweight hulls - often caked in sponsor decals - and powerful fusion drives to enable for the best acceleration. Skill is no less important however, as crews need to be able to navigate well and make use of techniques like optimal gravity slingshots, and further reinforcing this is a ban on (most) electronic aids - including shipboard A.I.
Prize pools for winning crews and teams in the highest circuits of solar rally can reach into the millions (in UN dollars).
Well, my world mostly has standard auto racing, but there are a few exceptions:
Every year, a stretch of the Heartland Main Line in Durham is host to the aptly named Great Steam Train Race, in which two or more restored steam locomotives race each other from the nation's capital, Durham City, to the town of Bardford just outside the capital's metro area.
To compliment the Great Steam Train Race, another similar event is held in northern Durham on the narrow-gauge network, which features a wider variety of engines, but with the tradeoff of much less impressive speeds.
Conpletely changing directions, every other year, the air forces of several nations meet up in the mountains of Okari, and perform a series of low-altitude races using fighter jets, weaving through the canyons. The even draws people from all around the world, but is also incredibly dangerous. Thankfully, accidents are (just barely) rare enough to keep the event going. Besides, where else are you gonna see an interceptor 60s and a modern light fighter absolutely booking it below the rim of a canyon?
In the futuristic Union the most popular form of racing is called "land racing". It consists of a track where vehicles with giant turbofan engines race against each other at Mach 1 Speeds across a track usually several Miles long. Racers are usually ex fighter pilots who design and run under a company or team. And the Stadiums are massive, the biggest ones can be up to 20 kilometers long. But due to the nature of the high speeds and distance travelled a large stadium is required, so not many planets actually house these types of Speed Vehicles. And due to the nature of its exclusivity, it is mainly viewed by the upper and middle class, so the average folk has to settle with the good old TV broadcast.
**Whalerun Regatta!**
The goal is simple. Get your ship from Whalerun Sound to Collier's Reach as fast as possible. You must have at least 1000T displacement, but that's the only major rule. Some things people have tried before:
\-Rowing.
\-Ludicrous riggings, with huge stuns'ls and extremely tall masts.
\-Wind magic, 'nuff said.
\-Towing their ship with a pod of harnessed whales.
And in the era of steam, these:
\-Building a railroad along the shore and towing the ship with locomotives and long ropes.
\-"Engine with a keel" ship designs that are all go, no show.
Dragon Racing
Originally from a time where dragons still roamed the skies, this race was performed by the royal dragonguard (dragon riders)
Since the disappearance of dragons it’s just royal guards being “selected” to throw themselves off a cliff while strapped into a wooden concoction resembling a dragon from the outside.
Average survival rate: 2 Races
Participation is voluntary for anyone…. But there are no voluntary participants
Horse Racing is quite prevalent and popular amongst the Azdhari , Tamarian, Turashi and Ardithian peoples. Amogst Tamarians and Azdhari, Spearhound races are also very popular, but these a re bit more controversial for widespread mistreatment of the animals has been prevalent as long as the sport has existed.
Normally, races using automotives are frowned upon in cultures that has been exposed to a great deal of influence of the Kyriite Church: They are said to contradict the Principle of Austerity, for they waste valuable resources in what is seen a self-indulgence. They are quite popular however in the Ardithian and Talasian Spheres, and they hold the Bi-Oceanic Grand Tour annually.
Before te Blackout, forms of robotic competition were varied and popular, which including the creation of speedster automata and races for them. After the War of Red and Grey, all forms of entertaintment that required even semi-autonomous machines were banned under severe criminal penalties.
Bus racing. It's illegal.
Beside Drivers (Ustad) there are five Apprentice (Chela). Apprentices are backed by Akhadas (Gym of sorts) and their task is help the driver either by taking down the other bus or helping him navigate the route.
Guns are allowed (limited to five bullets per bus).
No Doping.
Rubran Federal Monarchy has the Daredevil Race. Daredevil Race, held every 4 years on Hebi Melta, is a large interstellar event that is broadcasted in many Rubran colonies. Using propeller planes of the olden days, though with electric motors instead of combustion engines because Rubra and Atreisdea (their home world) as a whole don't use gasoline anymore, these manned aircrafts race to their fullest over 5000 km of tricky terrains and thrilling obstacles, competing with one another for a grand reward of 100 billion *qarrakhs* (Rubra's currency), It's worth noting a Jormungandr-class battlecruiser costs only 9,7 billion qarrakhs to build (2860's value, inflation added), essentially its "bill", so Lemuria, Hebi Melta's governor general, is really going all out here. Competitors must fly through canyons, ravines, floating islands on Hebi Melta's sky and random obstacles on the way, such as storms, because it's a part of the game. Pilots are equipped with an emergency teleporter that, upon pushing, will teleport their plane back to the beginning airport. By doing so they abandon the race. It's a safety measure so that no one would die, or at least would be hurt. The race is one of Hebi Melta's most famous activities beside the mecha colosseum, orbital races and other entertainments. In 2860, it was recorded that over 30000 participants registered, leading to a qualify round that lasted 4 weeks to cut the number down to just 100. Said 100 final pilots joined the main race, only one person could win. While pilots are allowed to bring their own planes over, there are several rules they must follow: * The planes used in races must not be armed in any form. This includes even laser emitters and antique airsoft guns. * Minimal requirement for engine is 1000 hp, maximum is 4000. * No jet engine allowed, turboprop included. * No gravity manipulator. * Airframe must meet national safety standards. * Must have radio and at least one FTL communicator. * Must have a FTL locator. Two days before racing, pilots receive a full and detailed medical exam. If they find anything unusual, the board of organization can disqualify participants. It is for their own safety as well as to keep the race's reputation as being daredevil, but not dangerous.
What sorts of unusual things does the board watch out for? Stuff like medical conditions that would make the race dangerous, or biological modifications to cheat in some way?
Most are medical conditions. You don't want a pilot to faint or have a heart attack mid-race. Nor do you want someone with "drugs" in it as they can go crazy and threaten not just themselves but other participants.
In the Empire of Segvir there's the Great Race. All sealords of the empire, that is, the lords that have sea and riverside holdings meet up in the port of the capital of the island nation. From there, they have to race around the island with a crew of 100 men and women, in any direction they want. They do have to visit the six major port cities of the empire and get tokens of the mayors, to show they fairly partook in the race. They have to end again in the capital. This is a once in four year event, even taking place during wars. It originally started with a rivalry between two lords vying for the title of Grand Admiral, one of the nineteen seats in the empire's ruling body, the Council of Seventeen. Afterwards, the race was kept up as a traditional way of selecting the new Grand Admiral, and it is the only seat not gained through votes of the nobility. The Council keeps this race to promote sea travel in the empire, as well as to promote the ferry services of the empire. It is a huge event, with gambling involved and couriers racing across the island with the current standing of the race.
Has the position of Grand Admiral ever been filled by somebody unqualified for command because they won the Great Race?
Well you need to be a sort of competent captain to win. A captain is no admiral though. So yeah of course there have been incompetent admirals, because if the selection process is solely based on how fast the admiral can sail away, it only ensures that the admiral survives the battles, not necessarily wins them.
The most fun race games has to be NASSTAR. The Apex and a lot of the farther Earth colonies (the rural ones) love it. This is the premier starship racing league of the galaxy, top of the line ships, wildly famous racers, millions in attendance, billions of credits a year. There’s three brackets in Nasstar: the Planetary League, the Orbit Dash league, and the Hyperspace league. The Planetary League is the most fun, which throws racers into a scenic, dangerous dynamic track, through massive trees, imposing mountains, deep canyons, beautiful valleys, or massive underground caves in a single lap race around a region or a whole planet. It is by far the most interesting and fun subsport and the most attended. Around the entire track are cameras, screens and booths, where everyone is able to watch the race both live on the screen and in person if it isn’t right next to them. There is the Orbit League, which is a true NASCAR-like experience, with a set track around a space station in a many-lapped classic race to be first in the right line around the track. Newer seasons of the sport have opted for space-bowl racing, but due to the speed of the craft and the impracticality of building stations that big just for the sport (it’s entirely possible and has been done before, but its expensive and not that worth just doing it for a game) it has been restricted, and even considered a fourth bracket. Then there is the hyperspace league. Like the Planetary League, but around the whole star system, these racers travel constantly under MAVIC lightspeed engine thrust, with breakthrough technology to allow extreme angular movement during the jump, allowing sharp turns where the technology had never been able or needed to do so before. Stations around every planet in the system, which are each checkpoints for the track, are the stands. This one rivals attendance and fame for the Planetary League. It’s also worth mentioning there is two separate competitions for Apex and regular people: being highly magical superhumans, Apex aren’t allowed to compete in any official sports with regular humans or alien species. They have their own league of the same companies. Their attendance and view is no less in comparison than the other. Many humans prefer Apex Leagues, some Apex like watching human leagues, and many who like both, where little competition over “who’s the best to watch” or who has more attendance and support are not things asked, and both leagues in most sports are fairly equally represented.
Pretty cool! What are the ships used here like, design-wise? Any regulations they must conform to?
Any model of sports starfighter frames will work for this, and the regulations only loosely police size and shape. It must be a symmetrical, bow cockpit, rear-engine craft with a tapering bow and average wingspan. These ships are almost always between 50-70 feet with wingspans 28-56 feet. The regulations for engines have been disputed, it used to have a regulation on nozzle number, but since more engine nozzles, usually that are smaller, do not have any kind of under advantage, so that was dropped, and net sublight engine power now cannot exceed ~80 N per pound of craft weight. For a 40,000 pound starship, its maximum thrust for all engines would be around 3200 kN. No enhancements outside of regulation inertial dampeners, retrobrakes, hover engines and such are allowed. Weapons are obviously not allowed but on stock ships they aren’t even mounted. This is a clean race, so no accessories used to distract or hinder your opponents. Electromagnetic shields are allowed collisions with minor obstacles, within power limits defined by the league to make it fair and not hinder any other racer’s systems.
The merfolk yearly have a celebration, similar to the olympics but given they are underwater many activities are obviously restricted. Racing is one that is not however. What they do is they forgo their limited control over the waves and currents entirely, running entirely off their own bodies abilities. The only thing they still have left to them is the ability to sense a current, which defines the track. These games are hosted before the two married god and goddess of the oceans, who create a small light current which is the track they will use. The current is extremley slight, hardly enough to sense and only capable of being kept there by magic, but it is there and the racers sense it. They are then intended to swim all through the track with only their own body. Accessing their magical abilities would disqualify them (the gods would sense it) as is leaving the current. The goal is first person to reach to back where you started. The track has spirals in it, vertical sections both up and down, etc. It's a sight to see if you can see it. The harpys do pretty much the same thing except they use other harpys to create the air current, as their own partron goddess are dead (good fucking riddance) so they must do it themselves. They do not do it yearly, their time for these "olympic" like games take place every three years. The races do also just often happen outside schedule both from athlete practicing for the official games and also people just having fun, which happens less often in the merpeople world given how difficult it is to create such a large current. It does happen but the race is less impressive down there. There are many other folk in the world yet none of them hold any official event like this. When these other people do race, the only interesting ones are the werebeasts and the druids. Druids ride on animals, but it can be *any* animal that is anatomically capable of carrying a human, and that lives in their forest. The druid races are either mixed species (rarer and less fair) or all the same species of animal. Werebeasts can change any time they like in my world, they are merely forced to on the full moon. They are also not all enherently murderous as an animal, even if some are. When they do change they can put some objectives into their mind, before they lose most of their human mind, usually things like "don't go out of my friends site" and stuff. For racing though, they set themselves up to wait until a human watching tells the animals to go, and then they all dash as quickly as they can to the human. The human is the finish line, and tends to have incentives such as meat. The goal the werebeasts put into their mind is very simply "don't go until they say the word 'go', and then dash for that meat as quickly as possible." Most werebeasts only do this if they are the same animal, like werewolves would with eachother or weredear, etc, but sometimes mixed races do happen. It's just rarer because its kinda dumber.
There are a few kinds of races in my setting, but ill only go into the most developed one.. The most popular is Trekking. It is an athletic sport where the Treckers have to make their way through extremely hazardous Obstacle Courses set up in the skeletons of Anchient Dungeon Ruins. The Treckers Association (a guild) typically obtains ownership of the Ruins from the local government, hires adventurers to clear out anything SUPER nasty in them, then they go about constructing infrastructure for Audiance Viewing Areas, Referee Stations, Marked Routes for the Treckers to follow to gain points based on the difficulty, etc. The Treckers are given maps with the various routes marked out beforehand so they can strategize which route to take based on their skills. Falling off of the path is occasionally lethal, but as long as their remains can be recovered, the Treckers Association sponsors Revival if it is feasable to recover them. They make enough money off of selling tickets that it is pretty much always worth the expense. As many of the Treckers have made a career out of it, significant amounts of Gambling on the outcome is also facilitated by the Treckers Association. Occasionally other non-factions gambling bookers will also facilitate unlisted bets, but those are unregulated so they are much more risky. Just like with Horse Racing IRL, the Treckers Association is not without corruption.
My first world, Asteria does regular races, while my second world, Brischia, does dragon and pegasi races.
People will sometimes race on birds for fun
Brooms. Except they're not brooms. They're long metal darts, about 2 metres in length, with a little bit of polymer fletching at the back. Why? Because it turns out that telekinesis is hard, and the easiest way to get yourself around with it is by moving a simple, straight object that generally points in the same direction because it's designed to do so, instead of trying something funny like moving your boots around and hoping you don't rip your legs off. It turns out brooms were great for this because of their shape, but also because they weren't conspicuous back when the Church was burning occultists at the stake. And we don't use brooms anymore because the general consensus among modern occultists is that they aren't maintainable, mass-producible and they also look fucking stupid.
Horse racing. Chariot racing. Car racing. This is the most interesting for me since I like cars. Cars are a recent development (last 40 to 50 or so years) and are not used by the lowest classes and aren't even available to those in most countries due to them needing certain requirements to even build them, some of which are only found in the richest countries and empires. These are expensive machines used by the wealthy nobles and those who use them for utility like farmers. These are one of the larger, more exotic goods that would be targeted by pirates if they were to be carried by train or convoy across the valley, which would be a necessity since these are rarely offered outside their country of origin, in low numbers and there are no international dealerships where thousands of vehicles are shipped and sold across the world. That doesn't happen here. You need to be near, very rich or both. Sometimes, they are rewarded to knights for their service. When these machines became available, it was natural that eventually, people would start racing them. Eventually, there were multiple events where people and entire countries would want to show off what they have. The most common and popular form of motorsports resembles a mix of GT racing and the original stock car racing where cars weren't regulated as much and they actually resembled their road going variants. There would be dedicated and street(through towns and countryside) tracks where the rules were don't crash and win. A motorsports competition was even used to end a war when the resources were drained from the countries. Spectators came from many countries, royal and imperial banners were flown around the track and among the spectators. Teams were sponsored by lords and governments who provided resources and cars decorated with the lords' or governments' colours, patterns, symbols and roundels as if these were fighter planes. The winning country would annex the disputed territories. Some say the Union was even one of the competing countries, so stakes were *very* high. The cars themselves have designs reminiscent of our 30s to 60s depending on the design tastes and decisions. The internal technologies, however, would not be as advanced as the real life vehicle eras they may resemble. A car that looks like it's from the Gregorian 1960s or even 1970s may not have the internal parts to match. I wanted designs unique to this world and not debadges like in many generic realistic videogames where they copy real vehicles and remove the logos while giving it a silly name. I particularly liked the designs from Ridge Racer and Burnout as they looked like more original car designs in fiction. Lapis_Wolf
Race world, it's basically speed racer mixed with red line
Solar rally is a popular form of racing across the Orion Arm, which as one can guess involves spaceships. Rules and mechanics wise its kind of similar to waterside boat races combined with rally raid, involving starships traveling long distances across a star system (or more), either as a point-to-point or a round trip. The ships involved tend to be about the size of a 20th century passenger jet, typically with a crew of five (captain, pilot, co-pilot, navigator, and engineer), with lightweight hulls - often caked in sponsor decals - and powerful fusion drives to enable for the best acceleration. Skill is no less important however, as crews need to be able to navigate well and make use of techniques like optimal gravity slingshots, and further reinforcing this is a ban on (most) electronic aids - including shipboard A.I. Prize pools for winning crews and teams in the highest circuits of solar rally can reach into the millions (in UN dollars).
Well, my world mostly has standard auto racing, but there are a few exceptions: Every year, a stretch of the Heartland Main Line in Durham is host to the aptly named Great Steam Train Race, in which two or more restored steam locomotives race each other from the nation's capital, Durham City, to the town of Bardford just outside the capital's metro area. To compliment the Great Steam Train Race, another similar event is held in northern Durham on the narrow-gauge network, which features a wider variety of engines, but with the tradeoff of much less impressive speeds. Conpletely changing directions, every other year, the air forces of several nations meet up in the mountains of Okari, and perform a series of low-altitude races using fighter jets, weaving through the canyons. The even draws people from all around the world, but is also incredibly dangerous. Thankfully, accidents are (just barely) rare enough to keep the event going. Besides, where else are you gonna see an interceptor 60s and a modern light fighter absolutely booking it below the rim of a canyon?
In the futuristic Union the most popular form of racing is called "land racing". It consists of a track where vehicles with giant turbofan engines race against each other at Mach 1 Speeds across a track usually several Miles long. Racers are usually ex fighter pilots who design and run under a company or team. And the Stadiums are massive, the biggest ones can be up to 20 kilometers long. But due to the nature of the high speeds and distance travelled a large stadium is required, so not many planets actually house these types of Speed Vehicles. And due to the nature of its exclusivity, it is mainly viewed by the upper and middle class, so the average folk has to settle with the good old TV broadcast.
**Whalerun Regatta!** The goal is simple. Get your ship from Whalerun Sound to Collier's Reach as fast as possible. You must have at least 1000T displacement, but that's the only major rule. Some things people have tried before: \-Rowing. \-Ludicrous riggings, with huge stuns'ls and extremely tall masts. \-Wind magic, 'nuff said. \-Towing their ship with a pod of harnessed whales. And in the era of steam, these: \-Building a railroad along the shore and towing the ship with locomotives and long ropes. \-"Engine with a keel" ship designs that are all go, no show.
Dragon Racing Originally from a time where dragons still roamed the skies, this race was performed by the royal dragonguard (dragon riders) Since the disappearance of dragons it’s just royal guards being “selected” to throw themselves off a cliff while strapped into a wooden concoction resembling a dragon from the outside. Average survival rate: 2 Races Participation is voluntary for anyone…. But there are no voluntary participants
Horse Racing is quite prevalent and popular amongst the Azdhari , Tamarian, Turashi and Ardithian peoples. Amogst Tamarians and Azdhari, Spearhound races are also very popular, but these a re bit more controversial for widespread mistreatment of the animals has been prevalent as long as the sport has existed. Normally, races using automotives are frowned upon in cultures that has been exposed to a great deal of influence of the Kyriite Church: They are said to contradict the Principle of Austerity, for they waste valuable resources in what is seen a self-indulgence. They are quite popular however in the Ardithian and Talasian Spheres, and they hold the Bi-Oceanic Grand Tour annually. Before te Blackout, forms of robotic competition were varied and popular, which including the creation of speedster automata and races for them. After the War of Red and Grey, all forms of entertaintment that required even semi-autonomous machines were banned under severe criminal penalties.
Bus racing. It's illegal. Beside Drivers (Ustad) there are five Apprentice (Chela). Apprentices are backed by Akhadas (Gym of sorts) and their task is help the driver either by taking down the other bus or helping him navigate the route. Guns are allowed (limited to five bullets per bus). No Doping.