After the war, Atlanta would launch a campaign against the moonshine drivers, opening the pathway for Bill France to create a new organisation, The National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing or NASCAR. 

As its first president, they appointed the man who created the Cannonball Run, the event that inspired the films. 

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Resources

There is a lot on the web about NASCAR’s early days, including a heap of contemporary sources. Rising above all that and a lot more accessible if you want to learn more are two key books, Real NASCAR: White Lightning, Red Clay, and Big Bill France by Daniel S. Pierce and Driving with the Devil: Southern Moonshine, Detroit Wheels, and the Birth of NASCAR by Neal Thompson.

For more on how the moonshine industry worked, North Carolina Moonshine: An Illicit History by Frank Stephenson Jr. and Barbara Nichols Mulder is fascinating.

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