Drive Like a Pro

NASCAR is a famously polarizing sport, but there's no denying its core appeal: NASCAR stockers run deep into triple-digit speeds; they are powered by thundering, bone-jarring American V8 engines; and the track mishaps are often spectacular. There are a number of stock-car "driving experiences" across the country, but we suggest the Richard Petty Experience, named after the NASCAR champion and stock-car legend. The Experience has schools at oval tracks around the United States, and its instructors will talk you through drives at near-racing speeds. Who doesn't want to feel 600 horsepower under his right foot?

Rally racing is unpredictable, dangerous and not for the faint of heart. It's also one of the most entertaining things you can do with your clothes on. Picture it: an open dirt road, a roll cage, a passenger-navigator telling you where the road goes, and no speed limits. Because the sport hasn't caught on in the U.S., there are only two options for schooling here: Team O'Neil's Rally School in New Hampshire and DirtFish Rally School near Seattle. Each uses purpose-built rally cars and closed-off roads, and each has an impeccable safety record and an impressive client roster.

This is what everyone thinks of when they think "racing school." There are more road-racing schools in America than any other type of motorsports school, and with good reason -- the sport is easy and relatively inexpensive to teach and astonishingly fun to learn. Regional schools exist in almost every state, but the two big players — Skip Barber and Bob Bondurant — have been around for decades and are the best places to start. Barber has installations around the country, but Bondurant's course is best taken at the company's purpose-built facility in Arizona. Either one will have you clipping apexes and driving with precision in no time.

Drag racing is like riding lightning in a bottle: You're sitting in a machine more powerful than two or even three ordinary production cars, and it's designed to go very fast in a very small space. Your entire world is pared down to reaction times and car control. Frank Hawley's Drag Racing School is the official school of the National Hot Rod Association, drag racing's largest sanctioning body, and it'll give even the greenest newbies the tools to become a champion. The school's cars range in horsepower from moderately insane to flat-out crazy, and there's even a motorcycle program.

Bing Images: Classic Drag Racers

Off-road driving is harder than it looks. Driving a heavy 4-by-4 vehicle over rutted mountain and desert roads may seem like the ultimate laid-back vacation, but in reality, the sport requires a healthy dose of patience and concentration, to say nothing of serious hand-eye coordination. Land Rover's Land Rover Experience schools are the perfect introduction. They provide the cars, lodging and food; all you have to do is show up. Locations vary from the Biltmore Estate in Asheville, N.C., to Canada's Fairmont Le Chateau Montebello in Quebec. Spouses are generally welcomed. Bonus: In the winter, the school offers snow- and ice-driving lessons.

Motorcycle racer Keith Code literally wrote the book on fast motorcycles -- "A Twist of the Wrist" has been viewed as the 2-wheeler's bible since its first printing. The California Superbike School (the name is deceiving; the school visits tracks from Virginia to Washington state), which Code co-founded, brings his teachings to life, giving you a high-horsepower road bike and teaching you how to ride it right. If you leave the school and haven't become a safer, faster, cleaner rider, then you probably shouldn't be riding in the first place. It's adrenaline incarnate.

This is one most people don't think of. Security driving is the art of driving what some people call "black cars," those limousines and SUVs carrying visiting dignitaries or other VIPs. Contrary to popular belief, the skill here is in avoiding trouble, not creating it. Most high-end security drivers know how to jump curbs, pull handbrake turns at 80 mph, evade a pursuer and handle a vehicle at speed off-road. (Not surprisingly, most security schools also do training work for the military.) Team O'Neil's Security School teaches an excellent course and is a good place to start.

So you've done a handful of racing schools and want to step up to the next level, but don't want to shell out for a pro-grade race car just yet? The Porsche 911 GT3 Cup Experience, held at Alabama's Barber Motorsports Park, is your answer. It costs a whopping $10,000, but you get several days' instruction in 911 GT3 sports cars and an afternoon of seat time in a GT3 Cup racing car. This is no dumbed-down school car; the GT3 Cup comes complete with slicks and a sequential gearbox, and it's identical to the model used by professional racers.

Few forms of motorsports are as much fun to watch as Outlaw sprint-car racing. The recipe is simple: winged cars, a quarter-mile dirt oval, lots of sideways driving and V8 power. Spectators often get pummeled with dirt, and the noise is spectacular. But driving an Outlaw car is even more fun than sitting in the stands. Smiley Sitton's Outlaw Driving School, near Dallas, offers 700-plus-horsepower sprint cars and all the professional instruction you can stand. As a bonus, you'll probably scare yourself silly at some point in the course, because, well, just think of the sport's name — Outlaw. What's not to love?

Desert racing might just be the last form of balls-out competition we have left. It takes place over hundreds of miles of desert terrain and in conditions that would shred the average passenger car. Have you ever wanted to go 80 mph over a desert plain while secretly feeling like you could go faster? Do you like the idea of a 1,000-mile race over the length of a Mexican peninsula? Wide Open Excursions specializes in dropping ordinary people into these extraordinary conditions. Their cars — custom-built desert buggies — are fast and fun. You can go faster in other places, but you probably won't get dirtier.

Sam Smith is a journalist, a Southerner, and a reformed Alfa Romeo mechanic who spends most of his time mooning over leaky old motorcycles and small-batch bourbon. A multiple International Automotive Media award-winner, he has covered cars for Automobile Magazine, Car and Driver, and Esquire, among other publications. He once drove 4000 miles in a weekend for a hamburger and has only been threatened by the German police twice.