It takes more than a couple of good chicanes and long wide straightaways to make a decent race track. The atmosphere and the location are just as important to the holistic experience of watching a race. By this metric, a mud bogged demolition derby track or autocross cones set up outside your local football stadium could be seen as great, with the right cars and the right people.

Today though, we're looking at racetracks around the world with all three "it" factors that make a racetrack iconic: competitive track layout, great racing, and lots and lots of heritage. 

 Silverstone Circuit ( Northhamptonshire, England)

AutoCar

It's not the oldest track on this list, but pound for pound, the list of iconic Grand Prix drivers that graced its hallowed tarmac has to be up at the top. Silverstone was one of the first large scale race tracks built in Europe after the Second World War. Disused military airfields around the world provided the perfect amount of space for turning into racetracks. And so, The first British post-war war track was constructed on the former grounds of the Royal Air Force Base at Silverstone.

In 1950, it hosted the first-ever unified Grand Prix world championship. The King and Queen attended the event, the only time British royalty ever attended a motor racing event on home soil. While other tracks held the British GP event on and off for some time, Silverstone's had exclusive rights since 1987. Since then, the circuit's hosted every single great Formula One driver from Sterling Moss to Lewis Hamilton, as well as Moto GP racing. The Circuit differs slightly depending on if the race is on two or four wheels. The track is contracted to host the British GP race for at least another four years. Safe to say, the track is a lock to have that renewed.

Related: Here's Formula 1's Provisional 23-Race Calendar For 2021

Italy: Autodromo Internazionale Enzo E Dino Ferrari                         (Imola, Northern Italy)

Via: GPfans.com

Opened in 1953, this legendarily difficult race circuit just east of the Italian city of Bologna hosted its first Formula One race in nearly 15 years this November. There's a good reason F1's been hesitant to return to this ultra-high-speed track. It has a reputation for being a widowmaker. Its long straightaways with little in the way of chicanes to slow things down mean it's very easy to take corners too quickly while going at a high rate of speed.

The biggest offender, the "Tamburello" corner, has almost no space between the border of the track and a concrete wall. It was at this corner that F1 legend Ayrton Senna lost his life behind the wheel of his Williams F1 car. A chicane was added to the corner to stop drivers going flat out through it. The 140,000 seat track also hosts Le Mans series cars in the 12 hours of the Imola race. We hope that now that F1 is back at Imola, we get to see more great racing from this most daunting of F1 tracks.

Related: Formula 1 Teams Scramble To Secure Funding

Indianapolis Speedway (Speedway, Indiana)

Via: Indianapolis Business Journal

We don't need to hype up how transcendent of an experience it is watching a race at the old brickyard. The Indianapolis Motor Speedway is the longest continuously operating speedway track in the world. It's also one of the world's only tracks to have hosted races for Indycar, Nascar, and Formula One all in one year.

The course used for Formula one races consisted of a portion of the speedway used for Indycar races, and several tight bends throughout the infield connecting either end of the speedway. The track wasn't kind to F1 racing and was the sight of one of the biggest debacles in motorsport history when at the 2005 US Grand Prix, several drivers walked out pre-race over a dispute over road surfacing and tires.

The venue's halo race, the Indy 500's been held every year since 1911. Even a global pandemic wasn't enough to stop the running of this historic race. Speeds on the oval speedway regularly exceed 230 miles per hour during the event. To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the track's opening, the track began hosting MotoGP motorcycle races using the same basic track as Formula One with a few minor alterations. Even if Formula 1's time there was short and tumultuous, it's still a fascinating footnote in the century-plus history of possibly the most legendary speedway on earth. Here's to 100 more years of racing at this icon of a racetrack.

Circuit De Monaco (Monte Carlo, Monaco)

Monaco Grand Prix
Via: formula1.com

When the average person thinks of Formula One, they likely think of the seaside circuit racing that took place at the Circut de Monaco. The aesthetic of single-seat screaming F1 cars zipping through the winding roads of this Mediterranean microstate is now what people most associate when they think about Grand Prix racing. Opened in 1929, the Monaco Grand Prix serves as a third of the coveted triple crown of automobile racing along with the previously mentioned Indy 500 and the 24 Hours of Le Mans.

The track's construction is largely untouched from how it was over 90 years ago. That said, there've been several changes over the years to the Grand Prix circuit layout. The most famous portion of the track has to be the banked tunnel. Through this tunnel, the cars that pass through it can be heard for miles around the circuit. Its tight and narrow hairpin corners make for the end of your seat racing for the entire event.

Sources:web.archive.org/nationalhistoriclandmarksprogram, autodromoimola.it, https://web.archive.org/www.fia.com, f1destiinations.com

Next: Ferrari Gears Up For 1,000th Formula 1 Grand Prix