grinding_journalist: soopey: Search google? 4-6 years old might be a good time to start them. Be forewarned, it gets expensive quick. Ludicrously expensive. Plaid expensive.

Yeah, did that. Apparently there are a few kiddie kart series/circuits not too far from where I live; they'll let him practice at age 4, and competitively race at age 5.

mikaloyd: First you need money. Stacks of 20 dollar bills piled higher than your kid. Then you are ready for motorsports

I realize that, but it occurs to me- most of the younger kids I've seen racing are definitely of the small town/lesser means set- is their family just putting everything they have into the kid's racing?

In short....yes, the family basically mortgages everything to pay for the kids racing...Jeff Gordon's parents moved the family from California to Indiana so he could have the chance to drive midgets and sprint cars 4-5 nights a week.  Bubba Stewart's dad (Supercross motorcycles) worked the night shift for more pay, so he could devote every single minute to the kid's racing career.  Even Danica Patrick's dad basically forsook all other things in life so she could race (though she has never won anything, even as a kid, but because he was willing to fork out the dough and because later she was willing to flaunt her T&A, she has kept getting rides)....

As to chances, there are karts, quarter midgets (maybe called jr midgets or even tq midgets depending on where in the country you are), there are also trophy karts in the off-road racing world if you're close to that type of deal, mini-dwarf cars for circle track racing (dirt and pavement), jr dragsters is also an option...most of those, the kids can start at 5-8 years old and in some them, the classes will advance all the way up to 16-17yo....

and as to the money, I've been around racing for many years and one of the most popular sayings is "How does a person make a million dollars in racing?  It's easy, you just start with two million...."