According To You: Your Favorite Racing Quotes

We here at Hagerty asked you for racing quotes, and you came up with some amazing examples. The answers cover a variety of race series, famous movies, and just about anyone who has ever hopped into a vehicle and experienced the joy of motoring.

So we compiled the answers to our question for this episode of According To You, citing the quotes as accurately as possible. Feel free to offer corrections in the comments, and we’d love to have more of your favorite racing quotes down there, too!

terra-incognita: “There are only three sports: bullfighting, mountain climbing, and auto-racing. Everything else is just a game.” -Ernest Hemingway

Marc: “How do you make a small fortune racing? Start with a large fortune.”

Tim: I believe it was NASCAR legend Junior Johnson who said that.

Mike: “If you ain’t first, you’re last!” – Ricky Bobby, Talladega Nights

Ronnie Schreiber: “Second place is first loser.” – Chip Ganassi

hyperv6: “You don’t race cars, you race the rule book!” – Smokey Yunick

DUB6: “You wanna go for pink slips?” – about 80 million unnamed street racers

TeutonicScot: “It is better to go into a corner slow and come out fast, than to go in fast and come out dead.” – Sir Stirling Moss

TeutonicScot: “Driving fast on the track does not scare me. What scares me is when I drive on the highway and I get passed by some idiot who thinks he is Fangio.” – JM Fangio

WWK: “Win on Sunday sell on Monday.” – Bob Tasca Sr.

SpecE30: “When you’re racing, it’s life. Anything that happens before or after is just waiting.” – Steve McQueen

jagbit: I love Steve McQueen, but he was just paraphrasing Rudolf Caracciola who said it first; “To race is to live. All the rest is simply waiting.”

David: “Nobody remembers who finished second except the guy who finished second.” – Bobby Unser

Kyle: “You don’t go to the start line because you’re ready, you go because it’s time.” – Unknown

Tom: I’ll have enough power when I can spin the tires at the far end of a long straight.” – Mark Donohue

DUB6: “You won’t come back from Dead Man’s Curve.” – Jan & Dean

Kurt: “It’s more fun to drive a slow car fast than to drive a fast car slow.” – Unknown

Paul: “Turn left and get back here as fast as you can” – Spartacus

Howard: I forget who in NASCAR said it – “What do you do when you spin out? Stand on the brakes and wait for the tires to blow.”

Alan: Who first said, “Don’t drive faster than your guardian angel can fly?”

Bruce: “You’re supposed to have the fastest car in the valley, but that can’t be your car. That’s gotta be your mama’s car!” – Bob Falfa, American Graffiti

Kelly: “Gentlemen, start your engines!” – Unknown

Tim: Not sure if these are the exact words but after the 1979 Daytona 500 Bobby Allison was being interviewed about the fist fight he had with Cale Yarborough and said, “Cale went to beating on my fist with his face.”

Mike: Dunno who said it, but probably either a NASCAR or drag racer participant, “Ain’t no substitute for cubic inches.”

DUB6: I’ve heard it recited as “there’s no replacement for displacement”.

C Duster: Along the same line, “You can’t beat cubic money.”

drjim: “When in doubt, Bore it out!”

Racin Rob: “If you are on the track driving fast and everything is under control, you’re not racing.” – Mario Andretti.

Bubba: “If you’re in control, you’re not going fast enough” – Parnelli Jones

55guy: “Rubbin’, son, is racing.” – Robert Duvall

David: “Rubbing is racing.” – Days of Thunder

Stephen: “While we’re still under a caution, I want you to go back out on that track and hit the pace car.” – Harry Hogge, Days of Thunder

Jeff: “There’s nothing stock about a stock car.” – Robert Duvall, Days of Thunder

Dean: “With pointed finger: ‘Engage.’” – Unknown

DuckCanuck: “He tried to use my brakes to stop his car.” – Emerson Fittipaldi

Chuck: “Speed has never killed anyone. Suddenly becoming stationary…that’s what gets you!” – Jeremy Clarkson

Arthur: I always liked the “No Guts No Glory!” I saw on the stern of a Hydroplane.

Bob: “Asphalt is for racing. Dirt is for planting potatoes.” – Seen on a bumper sticker

Ratsun: “First rule of Italian driving. What’s behind me doesn’t matter. ” – Raul Julia in the Gumball Rally.

Chuck: “Step on the gas and turn left.” – Unknown

Bruce: “It done blowed up!” – Sterling Martin.

Ed: “Blessed lady of acceleration, don’t fail me now!” – Dan Aykroyd in The Blues Brothers

Bob: “The older I get, the faster I was.” – Unknown

David: “Understeer is when you see the tree you hit. Oversteer is when you only hear it.” – Walter Rohrl

Bob: “I know he was cheating because I was cheating and he beat me.” – Unknown

Web: NASCAR driver (Buddy Baker?) on TV after a long spinning slide leading to a crash: “I kinda got a little behind in my steering.”

Ryland: “He got a little behind in his steering.” – Dorsey Schroeder

GMC Guy88: “We drove for the sheer fun of driving because there wasn’t that much money to be made.” – Richard Petty

Barry: “If you are under control, you are not going fast enough” – George Follmer (of early Trans Am fame)

Charles: “I didn’t mean to turn him around, I just meant to rattle his cage.” – Dale Earnhardt

Darthtrader: “We would like to thank all the funny car racers for using a Chrysler Hemi in their cars” – Quote from a Dodge Ad.

Darthtrader: “That race is like a 10-hour plane crash” – Parnelli Jones describing the Baja 1000

Richard: Regarding the density of air, “at 250 mph it’s like driving through a fruitcake.” – Koenigsegg

Kim: Mickey Thompson was once asked what it is like driving in the Baja 1000. His response, “it’s like being in an all day plane crash!!”

ET: “If It’s not in the Rules, It must be Legal.” – Tim Pawl at Indy, 1992

studenorton: “It was my corner. He got in my way. I ran over him.” – Bruno Giacomelli

Rod: “Motor racing is a disease of the brain, you know. It gets affected by it.” – Robs Lamplough

Tinkerah: What I used to say before terrifying a new passenger in my T-bucket: “You’re never more alive than when you’re on the brink of death. Let’s live a little!”

Timothy: “Speed is scarcely the noblest virtue, but it has its curious rewards.” – James Thurber