Automobile racing has never been contested at the Olympic Games, even as a demonstration sport, but, at Paris 1900, auto racing was contested during the sporting events held in conjunction with the Exposition Universelle. As it is difficult to know which events were Olympic in that year, some historians list the auto racing events in their records. At London 1908, automobile racing was on the preliminary program, but the sport was not contested and there have been no moves to include the sport in the Olympic Games since. Internationally, automobile racing is governed by the Fédération Internationale de l’Automobile (FIA), which was founded in 1904 and has 244 affiliated members as of 2022.
Until recently, automobile racing was actually precluded by the Olympic Charter, in which Rule 47.4.2 stated, “Sports, disciplines or events in which performance depends essentially on mechanical propulsion are not acceptable,” although in more recent versions of the Charter, this distinction has been removed.