Rally and rallycross: against the clock on real roads, or wheel to wheel on mixed surfaces.

How a rally works

A rally is a race against the clock rather than against cars alongside you. Hyundai Motorsport's guide to the World Rally Championship (WRC) describes an event spread over several days, or legs, of timed special stages on closed roads. The stages are linked by untimed road sections on public roads, where normal traffic rules apply, which is why the cars must be road-legal. Hyundai says WRC stages run from a couple of kilometres to roughly 80 km.

Red Bull's WRC guide says cars start each stage at intervals (it gives three minutes) and the crew with the lowest total time across all the stages wins. Red Bull adds that WRC rallies are run on asphalt, gravel, dirt and snow.

The co-driver and pace notes

A WRC crew is a driver and a co-driver. Before the event, Hyundai and Red Bull explain, crews drive the stages slowly in road cars during the reconnaissance, or "recce", and write pace notes. During the stage the co-driver reads those notes aloud to warn the driver of corners, jumps and dips ahead.

Service and time controls

There are no pit stops in the circuit-racing sense. Red Bull says teams may do major work on the cars only in the service park and only within fixed windows, citing 15, 30 and 45 minutes. Both Red Bull and Hyundai say crews are penalised for arriving early or late at time controls or for overstaying their service time.

WRC cars and classes

Rally1 is the top class. Sources describe it differently by date: Hyundai's explainer gives a 1.6-litre engine plus a 100 kW plug-in hybrid unit, while Wikipedia (secondary) says the hybrid unit introduced in 2022 was removed for 2025, with the minimum weight lowered and the air restrictor narrowed to keep the power-to-weight ratio. Hyundai says WRC2 is the class for Rally2 cars.

The FIA's 2026 WRC Sporting Regulations, as summarised in the FIA's published excerpts, let a manufacturer nominate up to three drivers with only the best two scoring, name Hankook as the tyre supplier, and allow an engine change after the start with a 60-minute penalty and loss of points at that event. Rally1 cars nominated for manufacturer points may not change engines at all.

WRC points

Red Bull gives the 2026 points system as 25, 17, 15, 12, 10, 8, 6, 4, 2 and 1 for the top 10 overall, plus 5 to 1 points for the five fastest crews across Sunday's stages ("Super Sunday") and another 5 to 1 for the five fastest on the final Power Stage, for a maximum of 35 per event. Wikipedia describes the same structure for 2025, and the FIA's 2026 Sporting Regulations confirm the two sets of 5 to 1 bonus points. Hyundai's explainer describes an earlier system, used from 2024, based on standings after Saturday plus Sunday and Power Stage points, so check which season a source is describing.

The championship, then and now

Britannica dates rallying to a Peking-to-Paris event in 1907 and the Monte Carlo Rally to 1911. Wikipedia (secondary) says the WRC itself began in 1973, and that the Group B cars introduced in 1982 were banned from the championship from 1987 after fatal accidents in 1985 and 1986. Our rallying history page tells that story.

The FIA and wrc.com report that Sebastien Ogier won his ninth drivers' title in 2025, with co-driver Vincent Landais, equalling Sebastien Loeb's record. The 2026 season is finished. On 17 September 2026 the FIA and the WRC Promoter said the WRC round in Saudi Arabia would not run that year, citing ongoing uncertainty in the region, so Rally Italia Sardegna (1 to 4 October) became the 13th and final round. wrc.com reports that Elfyn Evans, with co-driver Scott Martin, was crowned 2026 champion there, and Autosport says he is Britain's first world rally champion since Richard Burns in 2001. wrc.com says Toyota Gazoo Racing had already clinched the 2026 manufacturers' title at Rally Chile. See rally and Dakar.

Rally-raid

Rally-raid is a separate form of the sport. The FIA lists a World Rally-Raid Championship among its world championships, and Wikipedia (secondary) records the 2025 Dakar Rally as its opening round that year. Dacia's release says the 2026 Dakar ran from a prologue on 3 January to a final loop stage at Yanbu on the Red Sea on 17 January 2026, and that Nasser Al-Attiyah and navigator Fabian Lurquin won the car category for The Dacia Sandriders, Al-Attiyah's sixth Dakar win. Autosport adds that it was Dacia's first.

Rallycross

Peugeot Sport describes rallycross as a mix of rallying and circuit racing, run on short laps that alternate between asphalt and gravel. Unlike a rally, cars race each other directly.

Its signature rule is the joker lap: an alternative, longer route that each driver must take once per race. Peugeot says it adds a couple of seconds, so when to take it becomes a matter of strategy. The FIA World Rallycross Championship (World RX) explained its 2024 format this way:

• Heats start from fixed side-by-side grids, with heat points from 5 for a win down to 1.
• The top 12 drivers split into two six-car semi-finals.
• The top three from each semi-final make up a six-car final.
• Semi-finals and the final pay 10, 8, 6, 4, 2 and 1 points, for a maximum of 40 per weekend.
• Skipping the joker lap costs a championship point.

The format changes over time: Peugeot's 2018 explainer described four-lap heats and six-lap semi-finals and finals, while World RX's 2024 format uses five-lap races.

How people get into it

At club level in the US, SCCA lists RallyCross and Road Rally among its programs. RallyCross shares a helmet list with SCCA's Solo (autocross) program. The 2026 SCCA Solo and RallyCross helmet chart, revised 23 October 2025, accepts:

• Snell SA2025, SA2020, SA2015, SA2010, SAH2010, EA2016, M2025D/R, M2020D/R, M2015, M2010, and K2025 through K2010.
• FIA 8859-2024 (and ABP), 8859-2020, 8859-2015, 8860-2018 (and ABP) and 8860-2010. The chart's "8859-2020" does not appear on the FIA's own helmet list (Technical List 25), which recognises 8859-2015 and 8859-2024, and that list shows 8860-2010 as not valid after 31 December 2028.
• SFI 31.1 and 41.1 (2010, 2015 and 2020).

Check the current chart for the event you enter and the certification label inside your helmet; see our helmets page. The research behind this page did not cover other US club rally entry requirements, so check with the organizer.

For international rallies, the FIA's 2026 Appendix L, which governs international licences, strongly recommends a first-aid course for applicants for road (rally) licence grades. Our licences and schools page covers how licences work.