I doubt they could catch on, given how expensive can vanilla racing be already; maybe if the early 20th century development of electric cars isn't slaughtered in the cradle by Big Oil, we could see things like Rocket League with actual cars.
I know tankette racing was a thing for a while; that said I'm having trouble of coming up with any sports you can apply a car to that don't involve speed.
My gut instinct is you might want less of a gap between railways and cars so popular sports are less established when cars become a thing.
Not sure how much that would help, but it should a bit.