People race go-karts around here, from 10 year olds up to men in their 50s. They take that shit seriously, from arguing Briggs and Stratton vs. Honda motors, whether to keep them stock, accusing others of modifying, etc. I remember once things got so crazy, they once entertained the thought of having each engine assigned a number and every weekend, before people would race, you would have to draw a number to see what engine you got. It was supposed to keep you from modifying the engine. After all, why put work into cheating if you can't garuntee you benefit?
Do you have any autocross up your way? It's pretty harmless as far as racing goes (only one car on the track at a time and the fastest you'll go is highway speeds, if that) but incredibly fun. If nothing else, the couple of autox days I've done taught me that there's a lot about mid-engine driving that I don't know...