Racing cars can be divided into two main types: open-wheel cars that have their wheels outside the car body and other racing cars that have their wheels below. Here are the tree main categories of open-wheel racing. The cars are all single seaters. Many racing cars started off as ordinary road cars. Then owners and manufacturers added better engines and improved other car parts to make them faster. Formula One, or F1, is the most famous kind of racing. F1 car designs have changed over the decades, since the first world chamionship in 1950. Engineers try to make the most powerful engine possible within the race rules, but the basic design is the same as in a normal car.