The Dakar rally is the hardest rally competition in the world. It started in 1978, and it was held every year, the organization that organizes this race is the Amaury Sports Organization. At first the Dakar was driven on relation Paris-Dakar (in that time it was known as the Paris-Dakar rally), but because security threats in the Mauritania in 2008, it was moved to South America (Argentina and Chile).

From 2009 to today, this race is held there, there is no information that it will return to its first route. This competition is open to amateur drivers and for the professional. But, about 92% are professional, brands and drivers, so competition is hard for amateurs.

Cars used in this competition are real off-road beast. They are purpose built for this race and many of them don’t have any similarity with standard cars. Price of one vehicle can be up to $3 million. Those vehicles must be tough because the terrain is extremely dangerous, and they have to cover distances of 800-900 km per day. The Dakar rally is 9000km long.

In the 2000’s the Dakar reach its peak. In 2001, it had 358 participants, in 2004, 595 participants. The record was in 2005 with 688 participants. In 2015, it had 406 participants.

Beside cars, in this competition are racing trucks, motorcycles, and quads. For the motorcycles and quads, this competition is even harder. Almost every year there are many accidents, mostly in the motorcycle class. From its beginning, till today 61 people lost their lives in this competition, 28 of them were participants.