The Race of Champions event will be staged at Beijing's Bird's Nest Stadium in November, the first major international sporting event to be held there since the 2008 Olympics.
The 91,000 capacity Bird's Nest has struggled to find events to host since last year's Beijing Olympics closing ceremony.
The event pits stars from Formula One, World Rally Championship, NASCAR, sportscars and touring cars against each other in identical cars and has been held in London for the past two years after three editions at the Stade de France in Paris.
“We received exciting proposals from five world-class stadia, but after the incredible Olympics last year, Beijing's candidacy was difficult to ignore,” said event organiser Fredrik Johnsson. “The Bird's Nest venue is awesome and having spent the last five years at two of Europe's biggest stadiums, we were thrilled about the opportunity to take The Race of Champions to Asia for the first time.”
The 2009 Race on 3rd and 4th November will take place two days after the final round of the Formula One season in Abu Dhabi and will occupy a mid-week slot for the first time in its short history.
Last year's racers included former seven times Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher and world rally champion Sebastien Loeb.
