Category: mapping

From horse races to racing greyhounds—and even camels—a racetrack can host many different types of events. Even human sports like Bobsleigh (bobsledding’s official name) take place on a race track. But most associate racetracks with motorsports like auto racing.

Auto racing has existed since the car’s invention. From the Auto Club Raceway at Pomona to zMAX Dragway, let’s get ready, set, go down the road of the oldest and newest drag racing automobile race tracks and where they’re located, as displayed on the map below.

View U.S. Auto Tracks in a full screen map

The map is fueled by Wikipedia’s List of auto racing tracks in the United States. Sort it by each track’s opening year, what it’s made of, its length, and involvement in major racing series. Or, keep your foot on the gas to read more about each category.

Oldest & Newest Auto Tracks

Built in the ’50s, the oldest automobile race tracks in the U.S. have seen millions of fans walk through their doors.

• Auto Club Raceway at Pomona (1951)
• Great Lakes Dragaway (1955)
• Bunker Hill Dragstrip (1956)
• GALOT Motorsports Park (1957)
• Bandimere Speedway (1958)

As the country’s oldest track, the Auto Club Raceway at Pomona has always hosted the traditional season opener, NHRA’s Winternationals. On top of that, this Pomona Raceway has also been host to the last race of the season, the NHRA Finals, for over 35 years, making it perhaps one of the most famous dragstrips in North America.

In addition to the five oldest noted above that were built between ’51-’58, three more racing tracks were built that same decade. These include Bremerton Raceway, Kil-Kare Raceway, and Roxboro Motorsports Park, all of which were constructed in 1959.

Newest

Only two race tracks were constructed this century: Thornburg, Virginia’s Dominion Raceway (2016) and Concord, North Carolina’s zMAX Dragway (2008). zMAX Dragway’s construction brought the number of race tracks in North Carolina up to four, making it the U.S. state with the most auto tracks.

American Race Tracks Locations

Let’s look into where these tracks are located around the country. For starters, no city is home to more than one race track (that would be a lot of racing!) So where are they congregated?

• North Carolina (4 race tracks)
• Florida (3)
• Ohio (3)
• Illinois (3)

Auto racing is big Southeastern states like North Carolina and Florida. The previously mentioned zMAX Dragway is proof of that, along with Rockingham Dragway, Roxboro Motorsports Park, and GALOT Motorsports Park—all in N.C. As for Florida, there’s Bradenton Motorsports Park, Gainesville Raceway, and Palm Beach International Raceway.

We can’t forget about the Midwest. Summit Motorsports Park, National Trail Raceway, and Kil-Kare Raceway are all located in Ohio while Illinois is home to Route 66 Raceway, World Wide Technology Raceway and Byron Dragway. And the following 10 states have double tracks: Wisconsin, Washington, Virginia, Texas, Tennessee, Pennsylvania, Oregon, Indiana, California, and Alabama.

Despite these multi-track states, racing locations aren’t usually very near each other. In the next section, we’ll show how BatchGeo can help you measure distances—whether raceways or your own data.

Calculate Distance Between N.C. Tracks & Beyond

As we’ve mentioned, the Tar Heel State is home to two dragways and two motorsports parks, for a total of four race tracks. So let’s examine how many miles are between them.

To, determine the distance between two markers, right-click the BatchGeo map to enable Advanced Mode and then select the ruler in the top left corner of the map. Opt for the measuring tool and choose your preferred metrics. Next, draw a line from Point A to Point B and BatchGeo will let you know how far apart they are.

But we can also see the distance from one marker to every marker on the map with just the click of a button. Within the same ruler dropdown, select the second option: marker measure tool. Then, place your main point (whether atop mapped marker or anywhere else) to see distance from every point you previously plotted to that spot.

Don’t just eyeball distance—BatchGeo makes it easy for you to precisely measure distance between points at batchgeo.com.

The world is home to 195 countries (and counting—South Sudan is the most recent, having been recognized since 2011). There are plenty of things that keep these nations separate. But let’s focus on the things we do have in common. With the possible exception of national animals, a love of sports might be the thing that most brings people together.

You may know America’s national pastime (baseball). But the U.S. isn’t the only country with a national sport. You may wonder what is the national sport of India, Argentina, Turks and Caicos, along with the other countries around the world with either an official (as declared by law) or unofficial (based solely on popular opinion) national sport. Several countries even share the same sports, such as cricket, which is popular in the Caribbean. So let’s jump into this key part of each nation’s culture.

The map below depicts the national sports of the world, which can be sorted by sport, type (official or unofficial), and year defined, among other things.

View National Sports of Every Country in a full screen map

Official National Sports

There are two types of national sports. De jure are those declared by law while de facto sports are unofficial—yet often the most popular sport in each country. There are far fewer legislated national sports, so let’s look at those first. Here are the 12 countries with a de jure national sport (or two!).

• Argentina – Pato
• Canada – Ice hockey
• Canada – Lacrosse
• Chile – Rodeo
• Colombia – Tejo
• India – *None
• Mexico – Charrería
• Nepal – Volleyball
• Philippines – Arnis
• Puerto Rico – Paso Fino horse riding
• South Korea – Taekwondo
• Uruguay – Destrezas Criollas (Creole or gaucho Skills)

Most sports fans know of ice hockey, lacrosse, volleyball, horse riding, and Taekwondo. Some may have even been to a rodeo or two. But several of the de jure national sports may be unfamiliar.

Colombia’s tejo involves throwing metal discs (called tejos) at targets containing gunpowder, which explode on impact. The Philippines’s arnis is a form of martial arts, like the national sport of South Korea: Taekwondo.

Of course, the answer to what is the national game of India may surprise you: none. While hockey is commonly thought to be India’s national sport, in January 2020, the government refused to declare an Indian national sport. But what India is missing, Canada makes up for with their two official sports, a summer and winter version.

Perhaps most interesting is the number of national sports—de jure and de facto—that involve horses.

Five De Jure Horse Riding Sports

Many of the 77 countries’ official or unofficial sports revolve around horse riding. Let’s check out the de jure national sports.

Pato in Argentina is a mix of polo and basketball—while on horseback. Charrería, the national sport of Mexico, is similar to a rodeo, Chile’s de jure sport. Uruguay’s Destrezas Criollas (which is also popular in Argentina, Paraguay, Uruguay, and southern parts of Brazil and Chile) also involves horses: a rider must stay on an untamed horse for 8-14 seconds. And in Puerto Rico, they ride Paso Fino horses for sport. National sports involving horses are common. Let’s see some other common national sports.

Common Official Sports (Like Cricket)

Of the world’s 77 national sports, just 49 are unique. This means quite a few countries share their official pastime, as displayed on the table below.

Sport	# of Countries	Countries
Cricket	9	Antigua and Barbuda Australia Barbados Bermuda England Grenada Guyana Jamaica Turks and Caicos Islands
Baseball	6	Cuba Dominican Republic Panama Taiwan United States Venezuela
Rugby union	5	Fiji Georgia Madagascar New Zealand Wales
Basketball	4	Estonia Lithuania Philippines Serbia
Ice hockey	3	Canada Estonia Latvia
Volleyball	2	Nepal Sri Lanka
Kabaddi	2	Bangladesh Nepal
Field hockey	2	India Pakistan
Association football	2	Haiti Mauritius
Archery	2	Bhutan Mongolia
Alpine skiing	2	Austria Slovenia

The #1 most common national sport is cricket. While you may associate it with England (and it is the national sport there), cricket is most popular in the Caribbean countries of Antigua and Barbuda, Barbados, Grenada, Guyana, Jamaica—along with nearby Turks and Caicos and Bermuda. Note: it’s an unofficial national sport in all the countries.

Much like cricket, baseball is merely the de facto national sport of six countries. If you’re into American baseball, check out our Map of World Series Winners and Losers or Baseball Hall of Famers from 40 States, Nine Countries.

View Multiple Mapped Rugby Variants At Once

As for rugby, there are two variants as national sports: rugby union and rugby league. Let’s see them all at once on the map.

Five countries call rugby union their national sport, while just one is represented by the rugby league variant (Papua New Guinea). Additionally, while not the national sport, you’ll find the league version is also popular in Tonga. By selecting both the Rugby league and Rugby union groups, both will appear on the map—filtering out the rest we don’t want to focus on.

To discover where some of these sports are played, don’t miss 500 Largest Stadiums in the World.

Of course, the ability to filter your map by multiple groups doesn’t stop at rugby. Visualize your own location data at batchgeo.com.

It’s been a while since we first began investing in planes, trains, and automobiles. While the U.S. may be a culture of cars, public transportation is popular worldwide. Riding the metro, whether it be the subway, underground, or even the more technical electrified rapid transit train system, is a common way of getting from point A to B. But which are the largest?

Now, large is a relative term. Of course, there’s route length: which metro systems span the most miles. But ridership, the number of people who hop on and off, is also a factor in a metro’s largeness.

Then there’s the answer to which city’s metro has the most stations. And perhaps historians could make an argument for the largest amount of years open. As you can see, quite a few categories could lead to different metro systems coming out on top—unless one metro tops them all.

So let’s go aboard the length of routes, number of stations, year opened, and even year of last expansion for the 194 metro stations on the map below.

View Largest Subway Systems in the World in a full screen map

We gathered the data from Wikipedia’s List of metro systems. You can use the data grouping feature to explore the map for yourself. Or read on for more about the Largest Metros in route length, stations, ridership, and what is the oldest subway system in the world.

The Lengthiest Metros Are in Asia

The first metric of a metro’s massiveness that comes to mind is length. Now, the world’s longest subway stretches 743 kilometers (462 miles) across Shanghai, though it’s not the only one longer than 500 kilometers—or even 700. Of all the cities with subways, below are the 10 largest.

• Shanghai Metro – 743 km in route length
• Beijing Subway – 727 km
• Guangzhou Metro – 531.1 km
• Chengdu Metro – 519.2 km
• Moscow Metro – 412.1 km
• Shenzhen Metro – 411 km
• London Underground – 405.2 km
• New York City Subway – 399 km
• Nanjing Metro – 378 km
• Chongqing Rail Transit – 370 km

The 743-kilometer Shanghai Metro is the largest subway system in the world. That’s the equivalent of over 8,000 football fields—and it won’t stop there. The construction of at least five new lines and several extensions are scheduled to start in 2023, adding 411 more kilometers to the already lengthy metro. Upon this expansion’s completion, the Shanghai Metro will stretch across 1,154 kilometers in total. To see more expansion details for the other large metros, check out the map.

Now, Shanghai isn’t the only Chinese city with a massive metro system. In fact, seven of these top 10 are located in China. This includes the second-place Beijing Subway through to the fourth largest subway: the Chengdu Metro.

Perhaps the reason for this is population, or that China’s economic success requires more people needing transport to cities. Either way, Russia, the U.K., and the U.S. are each only home to a single sizeable subway system in the top 10 and the same can be said when it comes to ridership.

Largest in Ridership

As with the lengthiest metros, those largest in annual ridership are dominated by China, with the Shanghai Metro once again topping the charts in the number of people hopping on the metro each year.

Metro system	Annual ridership (millions)	City	Country
Shanghai Metro	2,834.69	Shanghai	China
Tokyo Metro	2,757.40	Tokyo	Japan
Guangzhou Metro	2,415.60	Guangzhou	China
Beijing Subway	2,292.65	Beijing	China
Seoul Subway	2,127.20	Seoul	South Korea
Shenzhen Metro	1,626.73	Shenzhen	China
Moscow Metro	1,618.20	Moscow	Russia
Cairo Metro	1,314.00	Cairo	Egypt
Chengdu Metro	1,219.62	Chengdu	China
Toei Subway	1,174.90	Tokyo	Japan

While five Chinese countries are accounted for, several new players arrive on the scene: Japan makes its first appearance on a top 10 list. The Tokyo Metro sees the second-most amount of riders each year while astonishingly a second Tokyo-based metro, the Toei Subway, also ranks within the top 10 in riders.

Additionally, South Korea and Eygpt are new to the top 10, while the very same Moscow Metro that was #5 in route length also makes the ridership list, though ultimately China’s metros are still the most impressive. However, a different country’s metro outranks even China in number of stations.

Subways with the Most Stations

New York’s presence in the lengthiest metro systems foreshadows its place atop this section. Another way of measuring the largest metro systems is by how many stations there are. These are the spots where you’d buy your tickets and hop on or off a subway. And while the Shanghai Metro had everyone beat in both route length and ridership, the U.S. makes an appearance with its largest city. New York topples the massive Chinese metro when it comes to the most stations.

• New York City Subway – 424 stations
• Shanghai Metro – 369
• Beijing Subway – 342
• Seoul Subway – 338
• Paris Métro – 304
• Chengdu Metro – 285
• London Underground – 272
• Shenzhen Metro – 270
• Guangzhou Metro – 247
• Madrid Metro – 242

The 424 stations of the New York City Subway make it the largest in the US—and the world—when it comes to stations. This is an exceptional feat considering that aside from emergencies, this subway has operated 24/7 365 days a year throughout most of its history.

In addition to the New York City Subway, the usual players (like China) also top the list with the largest stations. But two new additions include the Paris Métro in France and Spain’s Madrid Metro. And we can’t forget the London Underground, which so far has made it on quite a few largest lists, though never quite at the top…yet.

What’s the Oldest Subway in the World?

The first subway in the world is the London Underground. It’s one of the four subways built in the 1800s, though this one is nearly 30 years older than even the next oldest subway system. Of course, the Chicago “L”, Budapest Metro, and Glasgow Subway weren’t built all that recently either.

Metro system	Year opened	City	Country
London Underground	1863	London	United Kingdom
Chicago “L”	1892	Chicago	United States
Budapest Metro	1896	Budapest	Hungary
Glasgow Subway	1896	Glasgow	United Kingdom
Paris Métro	1900	Paris	France
MBTA subway	1901	Boston	United States
Berlin U-Bahn	1902	Berlin	Germany
New York City Subway	1904	New York City	United States
Athens Metro	1904	Athens	Greece
SEPTA	1907	Philadelphia	United States

As for those constructed in the early 1990s, three are U.S.-based (and all are in the Northeast). In addition, N.Y.C.’s PATH was built just one year after SEPTA, narrowly missing the top 10 and the Big Apple’s claim to two of the oldest subway systems in the world.

And as for the newest? You can see that when you sort the map by “Year opened” and opt for the “2021 – 2010” group.

And for more maps on planes, trains, and automobiles, check out the Commute Times and Transportation Rates of 370 Cities or The World’s Busiest Airports. A hint: most passengers arrive and depart from Georgia.