Offering a heady barrage of blue-collar beach culture, Daytona Beach (pop. 61,900) is a classic road-trip destination in every way, shape, and form. The beach here is huge—over 20 miles long, and 500 feet wide at low tide—and there’s a small amusement pier at the foot of Main Street (with a Sky Ride that dangles you over the fishermen below), but the rest of Daytona Beach is rather rough at the edges, with boarded-up shops and some lively bars and nightclubs filling the few blocks between the beach area and the Halifax River, which separates the beach from the rest of the town.
Besides being a living museum of pop culture, Daytona Beach has long played an important role in car culture: In the first decades of the 20th century, a real Who’s Who of international automotive pioneers—Henry Ford, R. E. Olds, Malford Duesenberg, and more—came here to test the upper limits of automotive performance. The first world land-speed record (a whopping 68 mph!) was set here in 1903, and by 1935 the ill-starred British racer Malcolm Campbell had raised it to 276 mph.
The speed racers later moved west to Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, and Daytona became the breeding ground for stock car racing—today’s Daytona 500 started out as a series of 100- to 200-mile races around a rough four-mile oval, half on the sands and half on a paved frontage road. The circuit races, both for cars and motorcycles, really came into their own after World War II. In 1947, NASCAR (the National Association for Stock Car Auto Racing) was founded here as the nascent sport’s governing body, but the races soon outgrew the sands, and in 1958 were moved to the purpose-built Daytona International Speedway, on US-92 six miles west of the beach, right off I-95 exit 87. Except during the run-up to a race, you can take a guided tour (daily; $6; 386/947-6800) of the triangular track, cruising down the back straight and around the steeply banked turns—in a bus, at a modest 20 mph.
On the speedway grounds, the racing experience is brought to life at the very enjoyable Daytona USA ($16), part museum and part amusement park, where you can learn the history of stock car racing, take part in a simulated pit stop, play video games, and watch a loud and totally thrilling big screen movie that lets you experience the pace and power of Daytona—without having to wear seat belts. (After a visit, you may want to spend some time practicing your skills at the go-cart track across the street.)
