Chico Races

Chico Races, produced by Chicago Coin Machine Manufacturing Company in September 1937, is a piece of pinball history from the industry's earliest boom years. It is the novelty-play version of Chicago Coin's Chico Derby, released the same month — a common practice of the era, in which manufacturers offered the same basic game in different award configurations to suit local laws and operator preferences.

As a single-player electro-mechanical game from 1937, Chico Races predates the invention of the flipper by a decade, relying instead on the ball's interaction with the playfield for its scoring action. Beyond its relationship to Chico Derby, few details about its features survive in the record.

Despite the limited documentation of its theme, art, and designer, Chico Races remains an interesting artifact for pinball enthusiasts and historians, contributing to our understanding of Chicago Coin's output during the 1930s and of how manufacturers packaged their games for different markets.