OpenStreetMap
I have been putting a page together showing all the Formula 1 grand prix circuits on OSM and this has shown how random motor racing circuits have been tagged in the past
Highway=road, Highway=motorway, Highway=track, Highway=service, Highway=unclassified, and leisure=sport have all be used.
Relations for the Grand Prix circuit have been created and where the circuit is a dedicated one the highway has been changed to raceway.
Annoying now I've been through the lot it seams that the highway=raceway tag has been abandoned (I could have sworn it wasn't last week) although Mapnik renders it (see Donington Park, Silversone, Hockenheimring, and Nürburgring for some old highway=raceways) - typical!
If you are in Montreal or Valencia and looking for something to map you could do worse than double checking the grand prix circuits out - looks like both are generally part of the local cycle networks and some areas are probably better tagged as something other than Raceway (current) or Track (previous) - in particular Valencia looks to have been redeveloped a lot since the aerial photography was taken and was originally laid down as a highway=track on top of open ground and other roads.
If you want to see how much stuff can be tagged round a Grand Prix circuit while bringing Potlatch to it's knees than the two German tracks are good places to check out!
Alas, not all tracks are in Open Street Map at present - 上海国际赛车场 (China), İstanbul Park (Turkey), Marina Bay (Singapore), 鈴鹿サーキット (Japan), Yas Marina (Abu Dhabi), and Korean International Circuit (Korea) are missing, and Wikipedia doesn't even know where the Indian track is (unsurprisingly all the new ones outside aerial mapping coverage).
Diary entry centred on the Nürburgring Nordschleife - where else could you do so really?
http://kjs.me.uk/osm/f1.php - shows all the tracks on this years and next years calendar (aside from India).
Discussion
Comment from balrog-kun on 9 October 2009 at 00:58
So here's yet another way of tagging raceways: http://www.openstreetmap.org/?lat=50.9605&lon=20.53909&zoom=17&layers=B000FTF :)
highway=racetrack is supported by mapnik but not Osmarender.
Comment from peSHIr on 9 October 2009 at 05:52
Mmm, looks like the two (semi)permanent paved race tracks in the Netherlands need lots of work as well. Not F1 (even though Zandvoort used to be), but still nothing even remotely resembling some of the German and UK tracks. See http://osm.org/go/0E5Ki2fy and http://osm.org/go/0GWZC50V-- to see what I mean. :-(
Comment from SomeoneElse on 9 October 2009 at 23:36
So (assuming that Donington doesn't run out of cash before next year) does someone need to book a track day to get a GPS trace of the new layout?
Comment from Skippern on 10 October 2009 at 13:58
The Brazilian tracks arn't one the map as far as I know. There is one in Caghonas near Sao Paulo (currently used), one in Brasilia (not F1 any more) and one Japaraguai in Rio de Janeiro (named Airton Senna, used to be F1?). They should be visible on air photos, and Yahoo coverage for those areas should be good.
Comment from kevjs1982 on 10 October 2009 at 14:13
When doing my quick knock up (the recent races in Valencia and Singapore spiked my interest!) I was only interested in the current tracks - fortunately the Autódromo José Carlos Pace in Interlagos - the current Brazilian circuit - is in there, although not mapped that brilliantly (rather jagged - a bit like Donington Park!) - at least Interlagos has decent aerial coverage.
As for Donington Park - work appears to be progressing quite well so I would imagine the layout will change regardless of Bernie's decision on Monday. I'll have to keep an eye on the local rag and see if Donington Park are doing any open days where you can walk around the track (like you used to be able to do when new motorways opened!)
Comment from Welshie on 10 June 2011 at 22:19
Looks like Silverstone needs some work in OSM, now that they've got the track layout quite different, and the new pits.