A reveller reacts during a water fight at Songkran Festival celebrations in Bangkok April 13, 2016. The three-day Songkran Festival starts on 13-15 April annually and is celebrated with splashing water and putting powder on each others faces as a symbolic sign of cleansing and washing away the sins from the old year. (Photo by Jorge Silva/Reuters)

Elephants spray villagers with water in celebration of the Songkran water festival in Thailand's Ayutthaya province, north of Bangkok, April 10, 2015. The annual elephant Songkran is held to promote the tourism industry prior the Songkran Festival which is celebrated with splashing water and putting powder on each others faces as a symbolic sign of cleansing and washing away the sins from the old year. (Photo by Chaiwat Subprasom/Reuters)

Revellers use water guns as they participate in a water fight during Songkran Festival celebrations at Kowloon City district, known as Little Thailand as there is large number of restaurants and shops run by Thais, in Hong Kong April 12, 2015. The Songkran festival, also known as the water festival, marks the start of Thailand's traditional New Year and is believed to wash away bad luck. (Photo by Tyrone Siu/Reuters)

A group of colorful row houses are reflected on to the top of a black car parked on 3600 block of N street in the Georgetown section of Washington DC, February 16, 2017. (Photo by John McDonnell/The Washington Post)

A man transports the carcass of a car on a two- wheeled carriage in a neighborhood in Abobo, a suburb of Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire on December 1, 2017. (Photo by Issouf Sanogo/AFP Photo)

The rear of the Chevorlet Chaparral 2X Vision Gran Turismo concept car at its world debut at the Los Angeles Auto Show in California, November 19, 2014. The annual event is open to the public beginning November 21. (Photo by Lucy Nicholson/Reuters)

Three Japanese tourists had to abandon plans to drive to Stradbroke Island off the Queensland coast when their hire car became bogged in mangrove mud, on March 15, 2012 near Stradbroke Island, Australia. (Photo by Chris McCormack/Fairfax Media).

Burnouts became a serious form of competition and entertainment in their own right. Considerable prize money or goods are sometimes involved, and cars may even be sponsored or purpose-built specifically as “burnout cars”. Burnout contests are judged on crowd response, with style and attitude therefore being important factors. Such contests are particularly popular in Australia but often occur in North America as well. Wikipedia