The Canadian Isabelle Tremblay was born in 1972 in St. Hippolyte, Quebec, and became a female racing driver at the mature age of 35. This makes her very unique in the racing world, as most drivers, especially the female ones, end up retiring at around this age. Before transitioning into racing, she worked as a real estate agent, but couldn’t help herself from dipping her feet into the racing driver world.
At the end of 2008, Isabelle Tremblay made her debut in a 200-lap endurance race alongside another 97 drivers. While she competed mostly for the fun of it, the expert and the seemingly gifted driver actually ended up winning the race.
Jim Paschal- 430 Races
Another North Carolina native and in our opinion the most underrated stock car racer on this list, Jim Paschal had a career that spanned for 23 years. During this time, he took home 25 wins and in 1977 received the title “Stock Car Racing Hall of Fame.” He also had twelve poles over his career.
In 1964 and 1967, he won the World 600 and in 1967 he held a race record for 335 laps led. This record wouldn’t be broken for another 49 years until 2016 when Martin Truex Jr. would lead with 392 laps. Paschal was strong in the short tracks, which could possibly be a reason for why he retired. After he retired, he worked as a farmer and owned a trucking company.
Francesca Linossi The Speedy Italian
At age 27, Francesca Linossi is one of the more promising female NASCAR drivers and has amassed four wins from her 120 races recorded. She's arguably the most famous Italian female NASCAR driver in the world right now and lives quite an extraordinary life. This beautiful Italian racer was the youngest race driver in Italian history to drive four rounds of the Citroen C1 Cup and currently focuses mostly on GT racing.
After racing with a Lamborghini Huracan for a while she got her signature track car, a tweaked out Mercedes AMG GT3, one of the most intimidating pair of wheels currently used in NASCAR. Linossi also loves hiking and often enjoys traveling anywhere from deserts to beaches. Francesca Linossi is a keen dirt bike rider.
Angela and Amber Cope
Female drivers are already quite rare in the NASCAR world. But what’s even more unusual, is two identical female driver twins who compete against each other in NASCAR events. Angela and Amber Cope, also known as the Twin Turbos, made history in 2010 when they both raced in three top NASCAR events together. It's said, however, that Angela is a slightly better racer than her sister, Amber. Awkard.
The two have created an incredible career, but it took them several years to do so. They overcame many obstacles like even sharing a racing car at an early point in their career. The beautiful and blonde twin sisters are also pretty popular with men, clearly, and can be seen modeling often.
Janet Guthrie - Smithsonian Legend
Janet Guthrie has a very compelling life story that involved a massive career shift eventually leading her to her passion. Starting out as a successful aerospace engineer, which is one of America’s best-paying jobs, Guthrie abandoned it all for racing. In 1972, she joined NASCAR as a professional racer, which was quite a feat considering that there had been no female NASCAR drivers in over a decade.
Perhaps it was her deep knowledge of physics that helped her, perhaps it was her overwhelming need for speed. What is clear is that Janet Guthrie was an exceptional driver. She finished 15th on the 1976 World 600 tournament, her first-ever race, and went on to qualify and compete in the challenging Indianapolis 500 and the Daytona 500 races.