Why Don’t We See Racing Novels on Tapas? Is It Just Too Hard to Write?

[AizuKin123]

So here’s something I’ve noticed while browsing Tapas for quite some time:

We have fantasy, isekai, cultivation, litrpg, and romance everywhere…
But racing? Motorsports? Competitive driving stories? Basically non-existent.

And I keep wondering — is that because it’s not popular? Or because it’s just really hard to write well?

Here’s why I think it might be the latter:
No Obvious “Power System”
Fantasy has magic systems. LitRPG has levels and stats. Racing has… driver skill, car setup, and strategy. Turning that into a satisfying progression system is tough.
It’s Very Technical
The sport lives on details: aerodynamics, tire management, track conditions, pit stop strategies. Too much detail and it’s overwhelming; too little and it feels fake.
Action Can Get Repetitive
A duel or battle can end in minutes. A race is long, with repeated laps. Keeping that tense and exciting without losing the reader takes careful pacing and character drama.
It’s Not Built-in Escapism
Fantasy worlds feel magical. Cultivation worlds feel mystical. Racing is grounded in reality unless you make it sci-fi. You have to hook readers with rivalries, personalities, and off-track drama.
You Have to Write Two Stories at Once
It’s both a sports story and a character drama. The racing itself and the team politics, sponsorship pressures, rivalries, personal arcs… both need to be compelling.
Which makes me think — maybe that’s why hardly anyone attempts it.

I’m curious:
Has anyone here actually tried writing a racing story?
Do you think it’s an unexplored goldmine, or just too much work for too little reward?
What would make you actually read one?
Would love to hear your thoughts — especially from anyone who’s written sports fiction/comic before.

[ori-taggart]

That's a really awesome discussion to have.

Like you said, Racing has a lot of technicalities and possible sub-genres could end up being too much or too little for what it represents. It might be because to make a good racing novel we'd have to step out of what Tapas usually brings as stories.

What would make me read one is the character's motivation for racing and if there are elements of the genre that are pulled to their extreme, kinda in the F-ZERO-esque sense, where characters would die if they lose a single race for example, if that can raise the stakes.

[moontokkym]

I think it's more because racing is a pretty niche sport?
Like yeah, there's a lot of fans of racing, but compared to sports like ice hockey, football (UK), American football, volleyball, etc... There isn't really a whole nation that has a racing culture to bond over, it's little pockets dotted all over the world. It's like sci-fi as a genre, there isn't a huge market but the people who like it will probably be very devoted readers.

It's also a sport that has a fairly high barrier for entry if you want to be an active fan. If you love football in the UK you can find fans of your local team down the pub and take a bus to your local football ground and watch pro-level sport. Racing, unless you live somewhere like Le Mans will involve expensive travel, expensive tickets...

I'm not generally a sports fan but a bunch of stories I've loved have been sports related or even sports-romances. They've all managed to bring me into the game and explained things just enough that I understand the stakes, but not so much that it gets nit-picky. Sports stories in general are pretty common and have all the difficulties you describe could be stopping people write racing stories, so I'm pretty sure it's just that the sport is pretty niche that's contributing to the lack of literature around it (on tapas, also pretty sure you'll find racing stories on kindle unlimited and indie tradpub).

[AizuKin123]

You make a lot of sense! Yeah its a tough pill to swallow its techicalities, niche, extremely strict but devoted readers and a not to common thing among many makes it harder to grow. But won't you agree with me that its a goldmine but in the depths of the abyss...Or you would prefer to say its too much effort for just 1 diamond ore?

[AizuKin123]

Oh I see where you are headed too. Ofcourse if you are going to write it in fiction just racing just wont work... no ost, no bgm, no sound effects, so the sole things you have to hook readers are easy to imagine and appealing scenes, and descriptive or detailed character arcs and their relations!

[moontokkym]

I wouldn't say any story writing is a goldmine tbh, it's more like the goldrush: the people doing the most work are the least likely to make the most money.

I will say that if you are in that sports fandom and you want to write a story about racing, do it, just don't do it for money, and if you must hope for readers, hope for a small group of dedicated people who love reading and racing, because it's unlikely to hit a wider audience unless you do some genre hybrid (as mentionned, sports romance, like most romance, is a really widespread genre, I was a massive fan of Yuri on ice when it came out, hockey romances were hella popular for a bit back in 2023-2024).

I say this as someone who has both a scifi comic and a romantasy comic in the works and it's the sci-fi one that's happening first, despite the audience for it being way way smaller than romantasy. I chose what I wanted to say now and what felt the most pertinent to me in this stage of life, not what I was pretty sure would make the most cash.

[AizuKin123]

Mm! Probably you are correct, my bad!

[bulgariansumo]

I’m curious:Has anyone here actually tried writing a racing story?

One of my buddies finished a story about boat racing. Part of it's posted here on Tapas, but they stopped uploading it here partway through. The full thing is posted on their personal website. I don't know if we're allowed to link to stories off-site here, but you can get there by clicking Read More on the Tapas version's banner.

Here's the Tapas version, though!

Read Offshore | Tapas Web Community