10 Of The Scariest Racetracks In The World

The vast majority of racetracks that get built today offer many things: excellent hospitality facilities, shiny sponsorship deals, and, if they’re being built for F1, probably not many overtaking opportunities. One thing they often lack, though, is the element of sheer, unbridled terror.

You could pretty convincingly argue that this is a good thing, but there’s something to be said of a circuit that sends the heart rates of those who race on it skyrocketing and reward that little bit of extra bravery. Join us, then, for a look at 10 of the scariest circuits still in use today.

Bathurst

Sitting around 100 miles west of downtown Sydney, the town of Bathurst plays host to the Mount Panorama circuit, made up of public roads that climb the eponymous mountain, wiggle over the top of it and then drop back down again. It’s best known for its annual 12 hour and 1000km races, the latter of which traditionally led to some, erm, friendly rivalries between Ford and Holden fans.

The whole track’s perilously narrow, and the section over the mountain features multiple high-speed bends and quick-fire esses, all hemmed in by unforgiving concrete walls. That leads into a flat-out blast down the Conrod Straight, ending in a high-speed kink that leads straight into a heavy braking zone. Plenty have got it wrong here and had an unscheduled appointment with the gravel trap as a result. Oh, and being in a car doesn’t make you safe from Australia’s wildlife – it’s pretty much a guarantee that a kangaroo will interrupt proceedings at some point.

Macau

This street circuit, in the former Portuguese colony of China, is notorious for the Melco hairpin, a bend so tight it lies in a permanent yellow-flag zone to prevent any opportunistic dives from turning into a traffic jam.

It’s a track of two halves, split between a wide, high-speed run down the waterfront and a narrow stretch that winds relentlessly between buildings. The transition between the two, a 90-degree right that narrows dramatically on exit, has been the site of many big smashes over the years, not least Sophie Floersch’s horrifying airborne accident in 2018. The scariest thing of all, though? They race bikes here too.

Talladega

Most of the USA’s ‘super speedway’ ovals – Indianapolis, Daytona and the like – top out at 2.5 miles in length, but Talladega, in the sweltering southern state of Alabama, is the longest of all at 2.66 miles. That extra length meant that, in the era before NASCAR introduced restrictor plates for super speedways, cars were lapping at averages of well over 200mph during qualifying.

While restrictors helped quell these frightening speeds, they led to an increase in close-quarters pack racing, strengthening the circuit’s reputation for ‘Big One’ pileups that send cars skittering into the grass like bowling pins. One of these incidents set a new record in 2024, collecting 27 cars in one crash. Never mind those persistent legends that the track’s cursed, too.

Cadwell Park

At the complete opposite end of the scale in terms of sheer size, but still scary in its own way, is Cadwell Park, in the sleepy English county of Lincolnshire. Too narrow and twisty to realistically use for anything other than bike and club-level car racing, it winds its way through woodland and across fields, its elevation changing with the terrain.

Its most notable feature is The Mountain, a slightly optimistic name for a section of track that nevertheless regularly launches bikes – and occasionally cars – into spectacular jumps. The whole track, though, is a bit of a rollercoaster, and if you get it wrong, there’s never a wall too far away.

Imola

The circuit that’s officially called the Autodromo Enzo e Dino Ferrari, but that everyone calls Imola, will forever be associated with the events of the 1994 San Marino Grand Prix weekend. Those few days that changed F1 forever led to the track being tamed and punctuated with chicanes, but by modern standards, it’s still fearsome.

From the downhill/uphill run through Acqua Minerale, to the right-left flick of Variante Alta, to the high-speed start-finish straight that’s not actually straight at all, the entire three-mile lap, snaking through pretty Italian parkland, keeps drivers on their toes throughout.

Laguna Seca

Much of a lap of Laguna Seca, in the hills above Monterey, California, is spent gently climbing, before drivers and riders arrive at one of the most famous corners in all of motorsport: the Corkscrew. Here, the track loses 59 feet of elevation in a section of track just 450 feet long. It’s a drop that seeing pictures, or driving the track in a sim, can’t really do justice to.

Much of the rest of the track isn’t for the faint of heart, either: turn six is deceptively fast, requiring commitment and a laidback attitude to braking points; and the subtly curving start/finish straight that slowly rises then drops into the Andretti Hairpin is a world away from modern, sanitised pit straights.

Spa-Francorchamps

Spa-Francorchamps’ run from the lap-opening hairpin at La Source, down the hill and up through the frighteningly fast left-right-left of Eau Rouge and Raidillon, is one of the most recognisable bits of racetrack in the world, iconic and infamous in equal parts.

Despite the fact that Spa’s somehow a lot less scary than it used to be, when it was a 9.3-mile blast through villages and forests, it’s still one of the most resolutely old-school tracks out there. It’s not just that opening section that requires the consumption of a brave pill – the downhill double apex at Pouhon, and the maybe flat-out, maybe not kink at Blanchimont will test your mettle too.

Circuit de la Sarthe

Circuit de la Sarthe is what it’s officially called, but you know this 8.5-mile blast through the French countryside as Le Mans. Home of the most famous endurance race of them all, the track’s been steadily altered over the years so that part of it is now fairly unremarkable permanent racetrack, but the bits that take place along arrow-straight, bumpy public roads are present and correct.

In fact, supposedly 85 per cent of the lap is spent at full throttle. Add to that the close proximity of the armco and the total lack of lighting, and we have to imagine that at 2am in the rain, it’s sheer terror. The famous Mulsanne straight may have been punctuated with chicanes and had the bump that turned the Mercedes CLR into a light aircraft smoothed out, but it’s still undeniably one of the most fearsome sections of track anywhere.

Nürburgring Nordschleife

The Nürburgring Nordschleife really needs no introduction – it’s probably the most famous race track in the world, and almost certainly the most dangerous that isn’t made up of public roads. Okay, it sort of is, but you get the point.

Nearly 13 miles of tarmac, 154 turns, minimal run off, multiple points that can send cars airborne, the Eifel Mountains’ unpredictable weather, and a reputation for claiming lives – a track like this would never, ever be built today, let alone used for competitive racing like the annual 24 Hour race that’s seen everything from scorching sun to actual snow over the years. The world of motorsport is a better place for it, though, and it’s not done road car development any harm either.

Isle of Man TT

What happens if you close off 37.7 miles of winding mountain road on a drizzly island in the Irish Sea, then challenge people on high-powered superbikes to lap it as quickly as possible? You get the Isle of Man TT course, undeniably the scariest, most dangerous race circuit of any sort still in use today.

The statistics are harrowing: since the first race was run in 1911, 270 riders have died while tackling the TT or its amateur companion event, the Manx Grand Prix. The course sees riders flying through villages, hemmed in by houses and lamposts, where the margin for error is non-existent. Combine that with ludicrously fast modern superbikes that can lap at average speeds of over 130mph, and it’s arguably an event that’s only getting more dangerous, contrary to pretty much everything else in motorsport.

And yet, fully aware of the risk, people turn up on the Isle of Man every year and give it a go, because to succeed is one of the highest honours in all of motorsport, on two wheels or four.