Believe it or not, NASCAR as you know it today has its origins from bootlegging during Prohibition in the 1930s, when the booze smugglers were using stock looking but performance upgraded cars to transport the illicit alcohol.
The bootleggers were often gathering up and racing their cars, sharing tuning information and constantly modding their rides to outrun the police. The racing continued even after the Prohibition ended and later it became an official sport.
Nowadays, with all the technology, regulations and safety features, you cant really call a NASCAR (National Association of Stock Car Auto Racing) ride a stock car. They are constructed on a full space-frame with the body being just a lightweight shell, with stickers for lights and trimmings, that are somehow reminding of the actual street car.
However, NASCAR teams, Toyota Included, are trying to replicate as much as possible the styling of the road going vehicles on the racecars in order to conserve the sport’s ideology a bit. See the differences between a production Toyota Camry’s design and its NASCAR equivalent in the video bellow.
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