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A stock car is a racing vehicle with the basic chassis of a commercially available automobile. But the similarities between a Ford Taurus racing the Winston Cup and its commercial counterpart are few and far between. We found a great 1999 article by David Miller called "What Makes a Stock Car Stock?" that shed some light on the issue. The main NASCAR stipulation is that a stock racing car must have the original engine block and cylinder heads. Of course, automobile makers are eager to highlight the similarities between stock cars and regular passenger cars. Stock cars have realistic-looking, but fake, headlights (they're decals)
and try to conform to the general profile of passenger cars. Early stock car races were just that -- recently purchased automobiles racing around an oval track. While this may have been more true to form, it was also highly dangerous. Today's stock cars are, in David Miller's words, "aerodynamic safety cages."
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