When you think of a stock car, you think of a car that is stock, not modified from the original factory condition. However, the cars of Nascar today are fine from stock. So with that in mind, why are Nascar cars still referred to as stock cars?

In early racing, Nascar cars were referred to as stock cars, to diffrentiate the difference between these cars and race cars, which were built for strictly racing and not other means of transportation. Back in 1948, it was ruled that Nascar cars must be stock, and the parts used must be available to general public automobile owners outside of Nascar and racing together. In these beginning years of Nascar, the cars were so stock, that cars on the street in public were often just as fast or faster than the cars racing for the prize. That all changed with the development of the Trans Am Series in 1967, the early cars were the closest thing the public could own to an actual Nascar winning race car.

However, with cars being so stock, it was like watching every day cars race. With the demand from fans and drivers alike, production began for "special edition" cars to be made out of popular base model cars. Car manufacturers were producing bigger and better engines to stay competitive with the other brands. However, limitations on engines were set for safety consideration. As engines changed, so did the competition field. Things just kept getting better and better. Automobile makers were changing everything from body designs to whats under the hood to stay in victory lane.

1972 brought on vast changes for Nascar. Once again with engine limitations being set, everyone was racing at about the same speed and competition was becoming boring. This led to the all around changing of the cars. Cars now had to look like production cars, but could be different in engine speculation. This created the surge that we are still under today. Nascar cars resemble the popular cars that the general public drive, however, theyre a totally different story mechanically. This keeps Nascar exciting and not boring. However, today there are still limitations set to engine displacement, and also restrictor plates. That keeps safety in check, so that cars could not go at severely unsafe speeds. Still today, even though modified, these cars are still stock cars, due to their body styles resembling stock cars on the streets today. It is amazing the progression of Nascar, and definetely a good thing that not all stock cars are completely stock!

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