Definition of "racing"

Chariot racings are probably, however, those in which the horse first distinguished himself as a courser, and we believe our earliest notices on the subject point to those of Persia, which were practised at the sacrifices made to the sun […]

1870, Delabere Pritchett Blaine, An encyclopaedia of rural sports, page 231

The war years have not greatly altered running conditions on the East Coast route north of Edinburgh. It was never a racing ground, and the heavier loads and the possibility of indifferent coal have been only partially balanced by the increases in running times of the principal trains.

1947 January and February, O. S. Nock, “"The Aberdonian" in Wartime”, in Railway Magazine, page 3