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There are many sport clubs with the name Racing Club of [town name].

It seems that Racing Club is an old name for clubs of runners. But I don't understand why is it used for football or rugby clubs (even if these sports involve running people). I'm also surprised to find that Racing Club is used in Argentina or France.

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    This question appears to be off-topic because it is about names of sports clubs rather than an academic study of English language.
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Jul 9, 2014 at 21:08
  • @Edwin Ashworth : do you think it should be moved to another website from Stack Exchange?
    – A.L
    Jul 9, 2014 at 23:47
  • Certainly moved from ELU. It looks like an interesting question, but is obviously tied in more to the history of individual sports clubs than to linguistics per se. The obvious places to check are the dedicated websites of Sporting Club X, Racing Club X ...
    – Edwin Ashworth
    Jul 10, 2014 at 9:40

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I have found this comment on Answers.Yahoo:

Why do some football clubs like Racing Club and Racing Santander have the word, "Racing" in their names? They were a racing club?

The club’s origins date back more than a century to a meeting that took place at the Buenos Aires Mercado de Hacienda on 25 March 1903. It was there that officials from two of the district’s rival clubs – Foot Ball Club Barracas and Colorados Unidos – sat down to discuss a possible merger. With neither club long established, the decision was taken to put aside their differences and join forces. After a call was made to give the new club “an original, distinctive and appealing” name, one of those present, Germán Vidaillac, showed his fellow officials a French automobile magazine called Racing. There and then, the decision was taken to go with this name, and Racing Club was founded.

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    That's interesting, I thought that Racing Club came from English language but Wikipedia cite only one English club, the other are located in countries where English is not the official language, this can be explained by your answer. Anyway, the quoted text explain how this club got its name, but it's not clear if it's the first time that the Racing Club name was used.
    – A.L
    Jul 9, 2014 at 20:22
  • As a matter of interest, which is the English club? I can't immediately think of one.
    – WS2
    Jul 9, 2014 at 21:57
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    @WS2 Racing Club Warwick F.C.
    – A.L
    Jul 9, 2014 at 23:46
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    Well, well, well! How interesting! I had not heard of them before but I note they play in the Midland Football Combination. Thank you for adding to my football education Now someone might be tempted to ask if there are any clubs named after days of the week - other than Sheffield Wednesday!
    – WS2
    Jul 10, 2014 at 20:02

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