The circuit for the Freedom 250 Grand Prix looks like a real-life video game
The route for the Freedom 250 Grand Prix, the first-ever street race on the National Mall planned for August, was drawn to pass as many tourist attractions as possible, in a part of town that’s dense with them.
In renderings, the route looks like something out of a race car arcade game, with cars whizzing past unmistakable U.S. monuments and Smithsonian museums. It’s an unlikely sight for a city whose standard speed limit is 20 mph (NNT IndyCar Series cars can reach speeds exceeding 200 miles per hour).
The 1.7-mile circuit opens with a front stretch along Pennsylvania Avenue by the U.S. Capitol and heads northwest past the National Gallery of Art and Canada’s U.S. Embassy where cars can get the most speed.
The circuit then takes a sharp left turn after the National Archives and cuts south through the National Mall at 7th Street, giving viewers there backdrops of race featuring the Capitol or the Washington Monument.
After passing between the Hirshhorn Museum and the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum, it then takes a left at Independence Avenue and heads back towards the Capitol. The pit lane is located on Pennsylvania Avenue.
“The circuit is unlike any other street race we’ve seen,” back-to-back Indianapolis 500 winner Josef Newgarden said in a statement after touring it Monday. “Racing through the heart of American history, with those amazing landmarks lining the course, is going to be incredibly powerful.”
The route was announced Monday by NNT IndyCar Series, the open-wheel car racing body that runs the Indianapolis 500. The race is being put on in partnership with Monumental Sports & Entertainment, which owns the region’s NBA, NHL, and WNBA teams, and will be aired nationally live on Fox.
Open-wheel racing has found new audiences in the U.S. with the growing popularity of F1, while the Las Vegas Grand Prix, first held in 2023, showed the possibilities of street circuit in an iconic U.S. city with recognizable landmarks. Whereas the Las Vegas race was closed from public view, in D.C., the Freedom 250 Grand Prix will be open for anyone to watch, fitting for a race in which cars will zoom between Smithsonian museums famously known for their free admission.
President Donald Trump established the race in January with an executive order, and it’s part of Freedom 250, the public-private initiative the Trump administration created to mark America’s semiquincentennial, independent of the bipartisan America250.
Freedom 250’s plans predictably center the president in the festivities and offer him a chance to shape programming for the anniversary around his tastes and base, like with the MMA fight being planned for the White House lawn. An IndyCar race through Washington, D.C., also fits the bill.
An official promotional video for the race showed animated video of Trump on Marine One before any race cars appear on screen. Still, the race has found at least some bipartisan appeal locally, even if it’s just for tourism’s sake.
Washington’s Democratic Mayor Muriel Bowser welcomed visitors to “plan their trips to D.C. now” for the race and invited them to stay to enjoy the monuments and museums up close themselves.