Parks, then editor of Hot Rod magazine and a dry lakes racer, launched the association to promote organised drag racing. The NHRA gained approximately 25,000 members in its first year; within six years membership exceeded 57,000. Hot Rod magazine and the NHRA worked together to convince the general public and law enforcement that there was a meaningful distinction between hot-rodders and reckless street racers — a category the NHRA sometimes called "shot rodders". The campaign encouraged involvement from adults such as auto shop teachers and garage owners and included a series of short films, among them The Cool Hot Rod (1953).
In 1954 the NHRA initiated the Drag Safari, a nationwide tour sponsored by Mobil Oil to promote organised drag racing with a safety emphasis. The Safari crew met with law enforcement and local city officials at each stop, involved local car clubs, and staged drag races. The four original Drag Safari members were Bud Coons, Bud Evans, Eric Rickman, and Chic Cannon. The Drag Safari led directly to the 1955 US Nationals — the NHRA's first Nationals — held in Great Bend, Kansas.
Winners of national events receive a trophy statue nicknamed "The Wally," in honour of founder Parks.
The NHRA's premier competition series is the NHRA Mission Foods Drag Racing Series, comprising 24 races each year across the United States. The US Nationals are currently held at Lucas Oil Raceway in Brownsburg, Indiana.
The Mission Foods Drag Racing Series is the top division and consists of four professional classes: Top Fuel Dragster, Funny Car, Pro Stock, and Pro Stock Motorcycle.
Beyond the professional tier, the NHRA operates the NHRA Sportsman Drag Racing Series, which includes more than a dozen classes. Classes contested at NHRA Divisional races include Snowmobile, Motorcycle Classes, Super Street, Super Gas, Stock Eliminator, Super Stock, Competition Eliminator, Super Comp, Top Sportsman, Top Dragster, Top Alcohol Funny Car, and Top Alcohol Dragster. All classes except Snowmobile and some Sportsman motorcycle classes are also contested at national events. The majority of NHRA participants are Sportsman Racers, who must be dues-paying members to compete. Included within the Sportsman structure are the Lucas Oil Drag Racing Series, the Summit Racing Equipment Racing Series, and the NHRA Jr. Drag Racing League.
The original Sportsman Drag Racing Series was divided into seven divisions: Northeast, Southeast, North Central, South Central, West Central, Northwest, and Pacific. Beginning in 2012 the Top Alcohol Dragster and Top Alcohol Funny Car classes moved to a four-region structure: East, North Central, Central, and West.
Several Sportsman racers have accumulated multiple world championships. In Top Alcohol Dragster, Rick Santos (2001), Bill Reichert (2010), and Joey Severance (2022) each hold five titles; Blaine Johnson holds four (1993). Frank Manzo holds a record 17 Alcohol Funny Car championships, most recently in 2013; Pat Austin holds four (1991). In Competition Eliminator, Bill Maropulos (1987), David Rampy (2017), Frank Aragona Jr. (2019), and Bruno Massel (2021) each hold three titles. Peter Biondo leads Super Stock with five championships (most recently 2014); Jimmy DeFrank (2012) and Greg Stanfield (2021) each hold four. In Stock, Kevin Helms holds four championships (most recently 2015).
The NHRA currently maintains headquarters in two locations: San Dimas, California and Brownsburg, Indiana, where the Mission Foods Drag Racing Series offices are based. The NHRA currently leases In N Out Pomona Dragstrip, Gainesville Raceway, and Lucas Oil Raceway; it previously owned National Trail Raceway and Atlanta Dragway.
The NHRA's official publication is National Dragster, founded in 1960 by Wally Parks, who also served as its first editor. Distributed to members as a membership benefit since its first issue, it began as a weekly newsprint newspaper and is now published monthly.
Due to the coronavirus pandemic, the NHRA cancelled its 2020 and 2021 editions of the Drag Racing Series at Virginia Motorsports Park, resuming regular scheduling in 2022. The NHRA is celebrating its 75th anniversary in 2026; a special Diamond Wally is awarded exclusively to winners that year.
The NHRA mandates a comprehensive set of safety devices and procedures across all competition events.
A five-point safety harness, equipped with a quick-release latch operable in under one second, is required for all vehicles. Fire suits — full-body coveralls made with seven layers of Nomex fabric, including Nomex gloves, foot socks, and head sock — are required for all drivers in the alcohol and nitromethane fuel classes and the faster gasoline classes. Fuel cells are required in non-nitromethane vehicles to prevent fuel leaks and explosions. The HANS device, limiting head and neck movement during impact, is mandatory. A titanium shield placed behind the cockpit of all Dragsters and Funny Cars down to the Alcohol ranks prevents debris from becoming a missile hazard — a requirement introduced following the death of Top Fuel racer Darrell Russell. An on-board fire extinguishing system directed at the engine, with both automatic and manual driver activation, has been required on all cars since 1983, when an engine explosion nearly killed Funny Car driver Mike Dunn. All enclosed-body cars must have a five-inch circular opening to accept an external fire extinguisher nozzle, and all vehicles must carry a clearly marked fuel pump cut-off switch on a rear panel accessible to safety crews.
Funny Cars have required a roof escape hatch since the founding of the division in the early 1970s, allowing drivers to exit safely during an engine fire rather than falling between the frame and body. Wheelie bars at the rear of all cars prevent the vehicle flipping during launch. Engine "diapers" — a platform under the engine retaining liquids and broken parts during catastrophic failure — are required to prevent oil-downs; oil-downs result in fines and loss of championship points.
Rear tires, called slicks, are made from a harder compound for resistance to disintegration and may not be inflated below 7 pounds per square inch. All cars capable of reaching 150 miles per hour must carry braking parachutes. A fireproof engine blanket surrounding the engine block is mandatory for cars running 9.99 seconds or quicker in the quarter mile.
Following the death of Eric Medlen in 2007, roll bars in Funny Cars were modified with thick insulation and several layers of Nomex coating. In the wake of Scott Kalitta's death at Englishtown, New Jersey in 2008, sand traps at the end of tracks were extended from 40 feet to 80 feet in length and deepened from three feet to six feet, and heavily padded retaining walls replaced old rubber polymer safety nets. A sensor system — developed by John Force, Kenny Bernstein, and Tony Schumacher together with NHRA racing and track safety teams — was implemented at the start of the 2009 season. Should a car in the Top Fuel or Funny Car divisions backfire or blow a burst panel during a run, the sensor automatically shuts off the fuel pump and deploys the parachutes. A separate set of redundant transmitters placed 400 feet and 600 feet past the finish line, introduced in 2010, can automatically shut off ignition and fuel and deploy parachutes should a driver be unable to complete the normal shutdown sequence; these were designed and constructed by Electrimotion under the direction of the NHRA Track Safety Committee. A rule introduced after a near-fatal crash at Texas Motorplex in Ennis, Texas — where John Force's car was ripped in two by severe tire shake — now prohibits the use of hardened chrome moly tubing in the framework of any Top Fuel or Funny Car.
The track distance for nitromethane-powered vehicles — Funny Cars and Top Fuel Dragsters — has been reduced to 1,000 feet (304.8 metres) to reduce the likelihood and severity of blower and engine explosions at speeds above 200 miles per hour. All other classes continue to race the full 1,320-foot quarter mile (402 metres), the original distance established by the NHRA in the 1950s. Spectators are required to remain at least 75 feet from the guardrail.
Within the NHRA's safety framework, a dedicated crew of safety personnel called the Safety Safari attends all events. Their duties include responding to fires, cleaning the track of debris after accidents, and assisting drivers before medical personnel arrive. The Safety Safari has been in place since the late 1960s, following a period of on-track accidents that forced several drivers into early retirement. EMTs from the city or county hosting each event are present at all times and compensated by the NHRA; aeromedical services are also on standby for airlifting severely injured personnel to local hospitals or trauma centres.
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