Western Suburbs of Chicago had several slot car tracks, but they rarely last more than 6 months. There was actually one that lasted several years and held the national slot car championship. It was a nice place, they had 3 layouts, and always seemed to have a decent crowd. Unfortunately, they closed too, despite trying to appeal to families and entertaining birthday parties. With the advent of the iPhone, young kids have absolutely zero interest in slot cars. It's too much work when your car de-slots and you have to get up and walk around the track to put the car back on course. There's no app for that. I guess if someone developed an app like Uber or Lyft, where for $1 per use someone could put your slot car back in the groove for you, they'd get into slot cars.
There's a newer slot car track in Naperville, not sure how long it will last. The owner managed to get into a strip mall that's nearly dead (used to the #1 mall in the suburbs). A Costco is scheduled to move into that mall now (replacing a vacant K-Mart) so perhaps that will revive the mall.
Here's one of the longest layouts I've ever seen!
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