The 200-mile drive features historic towns, a slice or two of Appalachian history and some absolutely gorgeous scenery. Today the bootleggers are gone, and this Northeastern Tennessee route is now aptly named the White Lightening Trail. Years later NASCAR was formed to oversee the sport, and the rest is history.
And in their spare time they challenged one another to races. During prohibition, bootleggers removed the passenger and rear seats in their cars to make room for the shine, and added heavy duty suspensions to the back of their cars.
Nicknamed Thunder Road because bootleggers once roared along it in their hot rods, this one-time moonshine running route just east of Knoxville is also the birthplace of stock car racing.
