Bootlegging is the illegal production and sale of liquor. The bootleggers would have to secretly communicate to smuggle alcohol. They would create sceret codes so the Police would not catch them in the act. NASCAR started when bootleggers would make certain changes to their vehicles to elude anyone who chased them. The bootleggers would have to drive very fast during the night without headlights and make very quick 180-degree "hairpin" turns. Henry Ford accidentally created the perfect vehicle for bootlegging with his V-8 engine. It was very fast to elude anyone trying to arrest them, it was able to travel through the mountain roads, and it had enough space to store the moonshine. Moonshine is illegal liquor. Many bootleggers would trick out their cars with features that seemed straight out of a spy movie. With a press of a button they would release smoke screens, oil slicks, or buckets of tacks to puncture the tires. Around the 1930s the bootleggers would race their cars at local fairgrounds or racetracks, where they learned that people were willing to pay to watch them race.
(Congress, Library Of.)