For the past month, the novel coronavirus has turned normally bustling locales and highways across Los Angeles into yawning, vacant stretches that might be unsettling to some.

The usual mess of costumed characters and tourists dotting the Walk of Fame are nowhere to be found. The parking-lot-like stretch of the 405 Freeway that traps thousands on daily rush-hour commutes is flowing freely during the day.

But where some see emptiness, others see a speedway.

In recent weeks, police across California say street racers have been quick to turn the state’s cleared-out roadways into their own personal playgrounds. From Southern California to the Bay Area, racers have been challenging one another at dangerous speeds on surface streets or rushing intersections to perform burnouts and other dangerous vehicle stunts, investigators say.

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