A road rally is a car rally

Rallying

Rallying, also known as rally racing, is a form of auto racing that takes place on public or private roads with modified production or specially built road-legal cars...

 that takes place on the public road. It is a popular sport in the United Kingdom

United Kingdom

The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...

, especially Wales

Wales

Wales is a country that is part of the United Kingdom and the island of Great Britain, bordered by England to its east and the Atlantic Ocean and Irish Sea to its west. It has a population of three million, and a total area of 20,779 km²...

, and has traditionally been the core of the "grass roots" of club-based amateur motorsport

Motorsport

Motorsport or motorsports is the group of sports which primarily involve the use of motorized vehicles, whether for racing or non-racing competition...

. However it has declined in popularity since the 1980s and now stage rallies are probably generally more popular with amateurs. A very similar sport is the 12-car rally

12-car rally

A 12-car rally is a type of car rally, often run by motor clubs as a simple and strictly amateur form of the sport.12-car rallies are run to Navigational Rally rules, which are based on navigational skills rather than speed, and with usually a notable social element too...

, which runs to broadly the same rules.

The attraction of the sport is that it is very cheap to compete, requiring relatively small levels of preparation, and is open to a wide degree of abilities.