For a driver to rise to the top in auto racing, it takes more then just talent.  It takes marketability, a competitive team, and money.  Lots of money. 

Two years in the making and edited from over 150 hours of footage shot across the United States and Canada, this feature-length, documentary follows eight ambitious, young male and female drivers from around the world as they compete in the Star Mazda race series: a 12-race, open wheel spec series with cars that are capable of 150 MPH.  Acknowledged as a key step in the ladder towards a career in open wheel racing, the Star Mazda Series is a dividing line between the aspiring and the truly professional race car driver.

The film Driven To Race focuses on drivers like 19 year-old Joel Miller from Hesperia California, winner of the Skip Barber Series – and the racing scholarship that comes with it; Irishman Peter Dempsey who struggles to find funding just to stay in the race - even as he’s winning races; 17 year-old American John Edwards, the youngest person ever to win an open wheel race in North America (at 12 years old!); JC and Kristy Kester - the only brother sister team in professional racing; and 26 year-old Charles Hall who was on the verge of a promising formula racing career in Europe before an automobile accident kept him out of racing for nearly 3 years.

In the face of the brutal reality that money is often the biggest hurdle in this sport, the drivers compete for the one thing that will move them closer to a career in professional racing: a prize package worth nearly a million dollars.!