As far as Autocross goes, I tried it one year. Probably '75 or '76. At the time shopping centers were still closed here on Sundays and the "club" would "rent" the parking lots of some in remote areas.
The cars that would do well were Porsches and Lotus and other go-cart like vehicles.
You had to get there early on Sunday morning and walk the course where they had laid it out with chalk and plastic cones.
By the time my turn would come, the chalk was gone and I could NEVER follow the course and was ALWAYS a DNF.
They were always 8,000 rpm first and second gear screamers and I lost interest in getting beat up and beating up the car.
At some point, "facilities" just disappeared.
I can understand why drag racing is so popular. It's kind of like a bobsled run and you just have to keep from hitting the walls to get good times.
The only place left where you can LEGALLY go fast is at high speed events at race tracks like Pocono or Lime Rock. There are no drag strips left. Even English Town in NJ is gone.
NYS is getting smart now. They are installing video cameras along EVERY "Parkway". They realized that they do not have the manpower to patrol as necessary any more. Even I get pissed at getting passed by "bikes" going flat out in top gear at 14 or 15,000 rpm. Makes me feel like I got stuck in a revolving door. And they are like jet fighter planes in that you can't hear them coming until they zoom you.
Of course, just because the high speed track events were a lot of fun, the lawyers had to get involved in it and ruin it for all. The Trial Lawyers Association is very powerful here. They aren't happy unless everyone is miserable and need to hire an attorney to explain the track waiver form for them an notarize it.
Ian Flemming saw that coming decades ago when he renamed the Trial Lawyers Association, Specter. Even the Russians followed the pattern with Smersh.