I started racing 1/12 back in 1978, I raced until about 1983 at the only road track in San Diego. About that time 1/10 Cox Scorpions and Tamiya Grasshoppers took over the local 1/8 road course. I could drive 2hrs to LA to road race a couple Sundays a month and spend more then 4hrs going back south. The off road cars were keep up with the Jones expensive as soon as the RC10 came out. I bailed from the hobby until 1991, bought an 11cc Aeromarine Sprint Cat, spent a lot of money, won a lot of NAMBA trophies until 1994, someone broke in my garage and took 18k worth of stuff 3 months before the 1994 NAMBA NATS at my club pond. Heartbroken I left the hobby again, raced District 38 desert racing until I was 35. Finally at 56 I saw the new batteries and foam airplanes with no frequency pins and gyros to keep your plane in the air. In 2016 my employer of 29 years closed its doors in San Diego and I transferred to West Palm Beach. I'll be damned if there aren't at least 6 1/10 road courses within 3 hours of me. I haven't even unpacked my planes and I went out and bought an X-ray Touring Car. I have spent about $1500 all in ready to race. First race this weekend after 34 years. I could have gone with an entry level used car and got in for $5-600 I think.
I don't see too many beginner classes for inexpensive cars anywhere. Another problem I run into is that the public doesn't know the difference between hobby quality RCs that you can buy parts for and toy store junk that you have to throw away when it breaks. They buy this junk for their kids, the kids get daring, break the car, it gets tossed. The kid then wants a quality RC and the parents won't buy it. Same with all these quadcopters, they buy crap from big box stores and ignore hobby shops that sell good stuff. I've found out that in West Palm and Port St Lucie where I live, there are very few hobby shops period. This doesn't help build the hobby either. Just my $.02....