TIL. Apparently "sideshow" means blocking the whole traffic (one way) to have illegal street racing or burning tires, etc.
For what? Even if they succeed in not destroying their vehicles, other innocent people’s property, or maim someone it’s a loud pointless nothing. It’s not a competition, it’s just being loud and smells awful. I don’t even get how it’s a show, it’s literally just cars doing donuts… how many times do you have to see that before it’s boring, once? Who goes to these things
Yes, the Wikipedia article on them notes that they started in Oakland in the 1980s, and points to specific city responses to try to combat them from the mid-1990s.
The movies were probably a contributor to the spread of the phenomenon, though.