A rally usually consists of roughly 15 special stages of 4 to 15 miles each, and a similar number of transits. Rallyes are scored by adding the times on all the special stages. The lowest combined time wins. Penalties can also be assessed for speeding on transits, or for entering stage controls too early or late, though this very rarely happens to the top teams. The SCCA National Series visits Washington, California, Pennsylvania, Maine, Minnesota, Arizona, and Michigan.
Huge crowds line the streets and forests to see the cars fly by at unbelievable speeds.
Each event in the SCCA series is covered on Speedvision, an international motorsports network, available with most cable providers, and the DSS and DirecTV satellite networks. The FIA series visits Nevada, Washington, and Mexico. FIA events are also covered on Speedvision. A rally car, from the outside, looks little different from a standard automobile, save for racing graphics. All rally cars are based on standard production automobiles, with a production body and basic engine.