How is money an important factor in the world of car racing as noted in the nonfiction book, The Unfair Advantage?

Money figures large in race car driving, but not always in the way that you might think. There is prize money for the professional races. Administrators of the race tracks and of their partnering media coordinate most of the activity for ensuring that there is money in auto-racing. Beyond these actors, there are people who own teams. Further, auto makers are often willing to invest something into at least one team of race cars to promote their own products but also out of a love of cars and a desire to know what they can do and a willingness to help race car engineers find out.

Professional race car drivers are paid usually paid salaries. These are boosted by race wins. Those who pay the salaries partly secure their ability to do this by taking the greater portion of every prize won by one of their drivers for the team.