City: Richmond, VA

Category: Spectator Sports

Address: 600 E. Laburnum Ave.

Description: Two weekends a year in May and Sept, Richmond International Raceway (RIR) is the center of the NASCAR universe when the country’s premier short track hosts a Nationwide Series race Fri night and a nationally televised Sprint Cup race under the lights on Sat. The top drivers, including past winners Jimmie Johnson, Kyle Busch, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and local favorite, Denny Hamlin, take on the challenges of RIR’s ¾-mile, D-shaped oval track in front of as many as 112,000 rabid racing fans who come from all over the East Coast to cheer them on. The nationally televised Sat night races, the Crown Royal Presents 400 in May, and the One Last Race to Make the Chase in Sept are the main events and can be more difficult to get good tickets to—especially the latter, which really is the last chance for drivers to garner enough points to make it into the field of 12 drivers continuing in the Chase for the Sprint Cup. By this point in the long racing season, the feuds and squabbles between drivers have heated up, so there’s as much drama as driving in this race.Whichever race fans attend, they’ll be amazed at the track’s latest upgrade—a 153-foot-tall, four-sided video tower with LED video screens that are 38 feet by 24 feet each. No matter where fans are, they won’t miss a second of the action. And beneath the gargantuan video screens are four enormous leaderboards, so fans will have up-to-the-second information regarding lap times, points standings, and running order in plain view.