Fair question from a 17 year old. Here is my answer, not on the street! There certainly is much more than just pressing the go pedal.

You are at an in between age. You are in between bicycles and cars, boy and man, high school and the rest of your life, living at home and having to provide one, etc, etc.

As for racing, at 17 I don't think you would be allowed to drive at a track day, but not sure. If by "the valley" you mean the San Fernando Valley, there is Willow Springs and the Streets of Willow Springs. They hold many driving school.track day events there in relative safety. HDDP can help out with this. He runs a race prepped NASA certified Crossfire at this type event.

While street racing may have a lot of excitement, it is totally illegal, and dangerous. In SoCal the police are confiscating the racers cars and crushing them. They did this on the news in the last few weeks. At 17 we have a tendency to think we are immortal. Too often we are proven wrong.

Don't get me wrong, racing can be fun AND instructional. Going to a high performance driving clinic even teaches an old dog like me some new tricks. A powerful car is like a loaded weapon. In skilled hands it is (mostly) safe, but in an inexperienced hand it can be lethal.

I hope other members of the forum can suggest some safe and controlled driving events that even a 17 year old can participate in. Patience is not usually a youthful virtue, but it just might allow you to age into an old fool.