While not quite as glamorous as the road courses of Europe, the Southeastern US and my home state was once littered with short dirt tracks. One from my hometown:
http://georgiaracinghistory.com/lost...hens-speedway/
Some of my earliest memories is of Athens Speedway.
I went through there about 12 years ago and can't find my photos but I think they're buried on an old computer. It's actually about a mile as the crow flies from my current residence.
http://georgiaracinghistory.com/lost-tracks/
Development and danger shut these all down, with probably the most famous being Lakewood Speedway, which I just realized is right next to the amphitheater (always knew it was close, but didn't know I "tailgated" so close to it decades ago).
http://georgiaracinghistory.com/lost...wood-speedway/
The Peach Bowl looked really cool:
http://georgiaracinghistory.com/lost...he-peach-bowl/
Damn MARTA depot now...
"Skeeters" were really popular back then. Winged Modified is the only way I can describe them...
Athens, Habersham, Jackson, Hollywood and Banks plus the Atlanta tracks were all within about a modern day's hour and a half drive between them all. Now, there's only a handful left across the entire state.
I need to get to a dirttrack soon!