Automobile Racing Club of America

The Automobile Racing Club of America (ARCA for its acronym in English) is a body that sanctions various stock car competitions. It is a subsidiary of NASCAR, and many of its competitions are used by young drivers to access NASCAR.

History
ARCA has its origin in the "Midwest Association for Race Cars" (MARC), a regional racing competition for "stock cars" founded in 1953 by John Marcum, who worked in NASCAR. In 1964 it changed the name of MARC, since it had become a national competition, and was renamed ARCA.

His first race was at the Daytona circuit in 1964, during the Daytona Speedweeks. Throughout its history, ARCA has scheduled its races on the same weekend as NASCAR races at the circuits they share on their calendars. Thus, ARCA races are usually held on Friday or Saturday, prior to NASCAR races on Saturday or Sunday.

On April 27, 2018, it was made public that NASCAR had purchased ARCA. To strengthen their relationship, in 2020, NASCAR renamed its regional series, the NASCAR K&N Pro Series East and the NASCAR K&N Pro Series West, to the ARCA Menards Series East and ARCA Menards Series West.

Main divisions
ARCA's main division is the ARCA Racing Series, called the ARCA Menards Series for sponsorship purposes. Since 2020, ARCA has sanctioned NASCAR's regional divisions, the renamed ARCA Menards Series East and ARCA Menards Series West. These competitions help young drivers progress to driving in the major divisions of NASCAR. Typically, the best drivers in these series drive later in the NASCAR Gander RV & Outdoors Truck Series or the NASCAR Xfinity Series.

Minor divisions
ARCA has another large number of minor divisions, among which the ARCA Midwest Tour, a so-called "Late Model" competition, stands out.