Explained: Why American flags are backwards on US race cars

Catch a glimpse of an American flag on a race car, and you might notice something strange: sometimes, those flags appear backwards. 

While it might be tempting to think a graphic designer somewhere has gotten something wrong, there’s actually a pretty simple reason why these flags are backwards on American race cars — and on airplanes and spaceships, too!

The real reason why American flags are backwards on race cars

At its most basic, American flags are sometimes depicted backwards on race cars in order to illustrate movement.

Specifically, you’ll notice that the flag will appear backwards on the right side of a race car, while on the left, it’ll look normal.

In fact, the proper depiction of an American flag from the left-hand side is included in the United States Flag Code, Clause 7.i:

When displayed either horizontally or vertically against a wall, the union should be uppermost and to the flag’s own right, that is, to the observer’s left. When displayed in a window, the flag should be displayed in the same way, with the union or blue field to the left of the observer in the street.

Basically, the “field” in this case is the blue plane of the flag that contains the 50 stars. This field is supposed to “point” in the direction you’re “moving” in order to represent the flag in motion.

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The next time you spot an American flag out in the wild, take a moment to really look at how it blows in the wind — this will help you understand exactly what the flag code is trying to achieve here.

If you’re looking up at the flag and the wind is blowing from your left to your right, the flag will appear “normal” — i.e., with the blue, star-filled plane taking up the left side of the flag, with the red and white stripes moving to the right.

Now imagine that you’re standing in the same spot, but the wind changes direction. Now, it’s blowing from your right to your left. The flag is going to completely change direction.

In that case, the blue, star-filled plane will take up the right side of the flag, with the stripes moving to the left. The flag will appear backwards.

When it comes to things like race cars or airplanes, imagine the person in the cockpit is holding an American flag out the window. When the craft in question starts moving, how will the wind impact the flag? If you’re looking at the left side of a race car, the flag would fly normally. If you’re looking at the right side of a race car, the flag will appear backwards.

Naturally, this is a very US-specific quirk — many other countries have flags that would look the same no matter which way you fly it, while reversing one country’s flag may make it look like the flag of a different nation.

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