It can be really hard to appreciate just how far the automotive aftermarket has come in recent decades. Back in the day though, most hot rodders had to make due with whatever cars and parts they had lying around. Many of these hot rods best racing days are long behind them, and these cars lie lonely and forgotten in barns across the country, waiting for new owners to restore them…or not.

Hemmings Auto Blog came across this 1937 Chevy coupe short track racer in Oaks, Pennsylvania at the 2011 Motorsports Expo. Believe it or not, this little rod is a real survivor.

This racer is a reminder that for every Bud More or Richard Petty, there are hundreds of thousands of backyard racers and engine builders. Many of these cars end up crashed or scrapped, and indeed this Chevy sedan raced well through the 1950’s and 60’s until it was crashed and stored away in a barn in South Amboy, New Jersey.

It still bears the markings of an accident and its previous owners, frozen in the exact moment when its racing career came to a screeching halt. This is a rare time capsule, an unrestored racer dragged out for the rest of us to gawk at. We think that’s just how this car needs to stay; unrestored, unpainted, left to slowly rot while the rest of us watch from afar. Would you restore this wreck, or keep it on display just how it is?