Champ Car, an abbreviation of "Championship Car", has been the name for a class and specification of cars used in American Championship Car Racing for many decades. It is also commonly used to refer to the Champ Car World Series, an international open-wheel championship that was based largely in North America.

The governing body was formerly known as Championship Auto Racing Teams, or CART prior to its 2003 bankruptcy. Under the CART organization the series was officially known as the CART PPG IndyCar World Series, the CART FedEx Championship Series, and, in the organization's second to last year, the Bridgestone Presents The Champ Car World Series Powered By Ford.

History

In 1909 the American Automobile Association (AAA) established the national driving championship and became the first sanctioning body for auto racing in the United States. In 1956, the United States Automobile Club (USAC) was founded to take over sanctioning from the AAA, which ceased sanctioning auto racing in the general outrage over motor racing safety that followed the 1955 Le Mans disaster. USAC controlled the championship until 1979. In that year, CART began operating its own competing series, which quickly became dominant.