I always get pissed when ppl blame the hobby shops.
First off, this is my opionon. I work for a new 8000 sq ft Hobbytown. The owner is a top notch person, into the hobby on the flying end. (heli's and planes) I have enough room for maybe 4 or 5 different manufactures, to cover all of there cars. Do I stock Mugen? No. I'd love too. But Traxxas promotes there products way better than Mugen, and they sell over a million Revo's in a year, for a reason. You can drive it anywhere.
I love racing. I'm a Kyosho Team driver, driving the RRR Evo WC. I own CVEC Racing. I'm active ROAR member. When I can, I go to all my FORGASS (ROAR) onroad races. I even buy from other hobby shops to help support them. Our prices are on par with anyone online. But until the racers want to come and buy on a regular basis, I'll keep selling those Revo's / Tmaxx's, they keep the multi million dollar investment we call a hobby shop open.
As far as a race track, so the public can see it? Yeah right. We have a lot next to hobbytown empty, ready for use. They want $500,000 for it. Then the city wants there part in it, and then you need to make sure your 1/2 mile away from residents, or they complain about noise.
My advise, support your local hobby shop, show up for the races, and for god sakes, ROAR / RC Pro Series needs to do some advertising. Not in RC mags, but in the month leading up to an event, do a radio add, or news paper adds. Same 100 guys keep reading the RC Mags, in the hobby shop no less, and not buying it.