Racers and the Motorsports Market are a Giant Economic Engine

Updated December 18, 2025
Guest post Author: Isaac Bunick, founder & CEO of MOTORMIA
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Racers and motorsports are a supercharged economic engine driving the aftermarket

Hedges & Company is a PRI Business Member.

The economic impact that motorsports enthusiasts and the motorsports market has on the US aftermarket industry is huge. Just look at these economic facts:

• Motorsports has a $70 billion total economic impact in the US ¹.
• Motorsports supports 319,000 jobs in the US, with $22 billion in total wages and benefits. That’s an average of more than $69,000 per job ¹.
• Motorsports generates over $8.2 billion in tax revenue, with $5 billion going to the Federal government and rest to states and local jurisdictions ¹.
• Motorsports participants spend more than $8 billion per year on track use-only parts ².

The motorsports market is going through several significant shifts now and in the coming years. First, motorsports continues to fragment into more highly specialized market segments, as racing technology becomes more complex and as sanctioning bodies evolve (who would have predicted drone racing 10 years ago?). Second, motorsports consumers have significantly more ways to research products before buying, as consumer AI use becomes more widespread. Third, manufacturers have new options for motorsports marketing to reach consumers.

Motorsports enthusiasts are significant consumers of parts, making the motorsports market lucrative. More than 8 out of 10 of them make at least five parts purchases per year, with nearly half making over 10 purchases per year.

All that parts buying adds up quickly!

Technical advances on display at the PRI Show

It seems like the motorsports industry has more innovation than other market segments. The PRI Show, held each December in Indianapolis, is a technical showcase for advances in racing technology. Just as racers look for every advantage to win, manufacturers look for ways to innovate products to make them perform better.

Examples from the most recent PRI Show include Turbonetics with its patented racing-grade turbo bearings, or ItalianRP USA with their industry-leading forged pistons and rods made with advanced 3D printing and Formula 1 materials. Or VP Racing Fuels that turned a formerly generic product category into over 80 specialized blends for motorsports.

MOTORMIA members also a source for more motorsports enthusiast data

MOTORMIA is an AI-driven platform for automotive enthusiasts and racers, where they can plan purchases and modifications for their vehicles. The MOTORMIA AI backbone helps members discover new parts, compatible with vehicles and performance requirements. Members can identify as racers when they register on the platform.

Members research and select parts, and save them to their profile as “builds.” There were nearly 1 million builds created on MOTORMIA in 2025.

Saved parts in member builds include the retail dollar value. This makes it possible to look at trends by market segment, product category and brands.

Racers planning to spend more, buy more

Data from MOTORMIA members shows that even though racing enthusiasts are only 15% of all users, products saved to their profiles make up about a quarter of total dollar value of all members. That’s because racers have builds with an average value of $15,500 in parts, compared to $9,200 for their non-racing automotive enthusiast counterparts.

Racers also have an average of 9.5 parts in their builds compared to 7.5 parts for non-racers, a 26% difference. That supports the PRI data that was cited in the first paragraphs above where racers make many product purchases per year ³.

Racer’s parts are more expensive

The average part in a racing enthusiast’s build costs 33% more than one picked by the broader market, at $1,630 for a racing part vs. $1,220 for a non-racing part.

Racers are economic overachievers

All these data points paint a clear picture: racing enthusiasts aren’t just looking for performance, they’re driving performance for the aftermarket industry.

Businesses in the motorsports market are relatively optimistic about the future, too. 76% of racing businesses say the popularity of racing will either increase in the next few years or be unchanged. 71% say the number of race cars will increase in the coming years or stay the same ².

Why are racers high spenders?

Racers support three core economic drivers of the automotive aftermarket:

1. Racers are economic overachievers: Using the MOTORMIA data, higher spend per build + higher spend per part + more frequent upgrades = a concentrated customer segment delivering high returns. For a lot of performance-focused manufacturers, racers are the difference between slow, incremental growth and a thriving high-margin business.
2. Racers accelerate innovation: Racers chase the next tenth of a second. They’re the aftermarket’s real-world R&D lab. Chasing performance pushes brands to develop lighter, stronger, and more efficient components. It makes them experiment with new materials and engineering approaches, and test cutting-edge concepts. The aftermarket has seen all of this trickle down into mainstream product lines for years.
3. Racers support smaller brands: Big aftermarket brands have to cater to the mainstream, but racers often rely on smaller, specialized manufacturers to push performance. This dynamic strengthens our industry’s innovation. More on this below.

A profile of racers

Digging a bit more into MOTORMIA member data, along with data from PRI, we can create a reliable racer profile.

• One in 10 truck owners use their truck for racing, an unexpectedly strong showing for the truck segment! Trucks are the most popular vehicles in the US.
• One in 5 American muscle owners race their cars, which shows the performance culture with Mustangs, Camaros, and Chargers.
• One in 4 sport Japanese Domestic Market (JDM) owners race theirs, with Nismo enthusiasts leading at 1 in 3. This highlights JDM’s strong engineering-first, motorsport-driven heritage.
• Even in the luxury/exotic segment, 25% Porsche 911 owners claim to race their car, showing that high-end buyers are far from passive collectors.
• The most popular racing category, based on manufacturer parts sales, is drag racing, which includes “run what you brung” performance drag racing, and bracket racing, which includes a lot of street-driven vehicles. This makes up three quarters of all parts sales. It is followed by road racing/road course at about half of all parts sales, vintage cars (47%), off-road racing (43%), autocross (38%), dirt oval (37%), drifting (29%), followed by 15 other categories ².

These insights reveal where the deepest performance intent lives, and where manufacturers can find the most motivated, highest-value aftermarket customers.

Where racers buy parts

According to PRI, most race teams (64%) buy parts directly from manufacturers. This is called direct-to-consumer sales, or DTC. 59% of racers buy parts from wholesale distributors ².

A few paragraphs earlier we made the point that racers tend to support small businesses. Here’s data to back that up: half of racers buy from custom fabricators, 41% from engine and chassis builders, and 39% from independent installers and retailers ².

37% buy from auto parts chain stores and 32% from online retailers ².

How to cite this article on the motorsports market

This article is copyrighted, but hey, it’s polite to share! This content is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International License and can be distributed or quoted, with attribution given to Hedges & Company, and a link back to this article from your website.

Sources used in this article

¹ Source: John Dunham & Associates (JDA) research study for the Performance Racing Industry (PRI) trade association, 2025.
² Source: 2024 State of the Racing Market, published by Performance Racing Industry (PRI) trade association, 2024.
³ Source: MOTORMIA member data, 2025.