What RC racing is, and who writes its rules.

Model cars, raced by radio

A radio-controlled car is a miniature vehicle steered and driven by radio. Wikipedia says such cars have existed since the 1940s and that competitive RC car racing grew sharply in the 1980s, crediting the maker Tamiya with popularising it; that is Wikipedia's account, and the early history, including the disputed question of the first RC car, is on the first RC cars.

Wikipedia also draws the two distinctions that run through the whole sport: electric cars, whose motor power is regulated by an electronic speed controller, against nitro cars with a small combustion engine; and on-road cars built for flat surfaces against off-road cars built for rough ground.

Three ways the sport is divided

The governing bodies organise racing along three lines, and almost every class name combines all three.

Power source

IFMAR, the world body, is organised in an IC (internal combustion) section and an Electric section, each with its own chairman, and its rule books refer to an "IFMAR I.C. Section Executive" and an "IFMAR Electric section" (IFMAR 1/8 IC off-road rules 2024, 3.1.a; IFMAR electric off-road rules 2019, 4.2.11). Large-scale cars add a third type: the BRCA's Large Scale Off Road series runs petrol engines of 23 to 32 cc (BRCA section page, 2026). See electric and nitro.

Surface

Track (on-road) racing and off-road racing have separate rule books at IFMAR and separate sections at EFRA, the European body. See on-road and off-road.

Scale

The scale (1/5, 1/8, 1/10 or 1/12 in the rule books read) sets the class, together with the power source and surface. A "1/8 IC off-road" car, for example, is a nitro buggy under IFMAR's naming. See the classes.

Some disciplines sit outside the main track and off-road split. New Zealand's NZRCS rule book (2026, version 1.2, section 1) covers 1/10 electric oval racing, divided into contact classes (Superstocks, Stockcars, Streetstocks) and non-contact classes (Saloon Cars, Modifieds). The BRCA, the UK national body, lists circuit, off-road, oval, drifting, large scale and bike disciplines on its 2026 membership page. IFMAR has published a provisional electric drift rule set (2018), which this site found by title but did not open.

Where racing happens: the track and the rostrum

Races are run on purpose-built tracks, and the rule books set what a track must be. For its electric classes, EFRA's Handbook 2026 (Appendix 3, version 4, A.1.1 to 1.3) requires a track of at least 120 m with both right and left turns, with its farthest point no more than 50 m from the driver's rostrum. It runs 1/12 cars indoors on carpet only, and sets 1/10 off-road tracks at least 3 m wide and no more than 250 m long.

Drivers do not stand beside their cars. They race from a raised rostrum, or driver stand, that overlooks the whole track. IFMAR's 1/8 IC off-road rules (2024, 3.7) describe a rostrum with room for 10 to 12 drivers, at least 80 cm each, a floor 2 to 4 m high and an equal, unobstructed view from every position. While one group races, other competitors stand around the track as marshals, recovering cars that crash. Both IFMAR (electric off-road rules 2019, 1.11) and EFRA (Handbook 2026, Appendix 3, A.5.5) require competitors to marshal. The race-day sequence is on how a race meeting works, and marshalling on marshalling and officials.

A test of the driver, by rule

The rule books limit what electronics may do. IFMAR's 1/8 IC off-road rules (2024, 2.8) forbid traction control, active suspension and gyro or G-sensor aided steering, allow sensors only for passive data recording, and give the reason: the World Championship is meant to test driver skill. EFRA's electric rules (Handbook 2026, Appendix 3, A.4.1 to 4.4) separately ban automated steering, gyroscopes that control the car's movement, traction control and active suspension, and allow no signal to be sent from the car except the lap-counting transponder's. These are two bodies' rules, each for its own events.

Who writes the rules

There is no single rule book for RC racing. Each body writes rules for its own events:

• IFMAR writes the World Championship rule books, one per class. See IFMAR and the blocs.
• Four continental blocs (EFRA in Europe, ROAR in the United States and Canada, FEMCA in Asia and Australasia, and FAMAR, which Wikipedia places in South America and South Africa) run their own championships and represent their regions in IFMAR. See EFRA and ROAR.
• National bodies, such as the BRCA in the UK, write the rules for national racing. ROAR is an IFMAR bloc and also, in its own description, a national non-profit corporation covering 12 US regions plus Canada. See the BRCA and national bodies.

A rule from one body does not carry over to another body's events, and this site keeps them apart. Racing rules are also not law. Radio transmitters fall under each country's radio regulator, which is a separate matter covered on radio rules by country.

What this site does not cover

These pages describe the rules and the organisations. They do not teach driving, building, setting up or tuning a car, and they give no procedures for charging batteries or handling fuel. Those belong to a class's rule book, the track, the race director and the makers' instructions.