I am in the preliminary round of looking for a slot car race track for our son’s Big xmas present.
I don’t know what a good brand is or what the general costs are.
John cooper challenge looks really cool and fun.
We had been given a basic set ( about$30)years ago and that thing was a pistol to put and keep the tracks together.
All suggestions are appreciated.
I have nothing constructive to add here, but I wanted to share this.
While on vacation last week, I was in the resort’s gift shop. In keeping with my “still ain’t grown up” style, I was poking around in the toy area, and came across a slot car set. Judging by the picture on the box, it was the dinkiest little track ever created by man. An absolutely tiny oval that was just about as close to being a circle as you can get. Any kid would be bored with this thing in well under a minute.
Now, I’m guessing that it is being marketed exclusively in the U.S., as it seems that they hope folks here will think it to be a much larger track. You see, the box had a huge-type, bolded starburst box proclaiming that it contained…
137 CM OF TRACK!!
Oooooooooooo…
OK-here’s my somewhat dated information on slot-car tracks and such. Three basic sizes, 1/24, 1/32, and 1/87 AKA HO. Depending on how far you want to go, all three scales have cars that can be modified for speed, torque, low drag-you can spend lots of time (as I did before discovering girls) putting roller bearing axles, extra sticky tires, and high-conductivity pickups on cars. You’ll have to research who is big in the genre nowadays regarding track, if you’d like to build a really rockin’ layout. 
Rockin’ Layout…huh…that’s costs me money!
(I feel like Mr. Krabbs, some days.)
Wait until he complains that you didn’t buy him GT4 instead.
I have a pretty neat Scalextrix set I’m looking to get rid of (no space to set it up). It’s 1/32; Scalextrix seems to be the big brand in 1/32 slots. All told I prefer 1/24, but to run those you need to find a dedicated slot car track and drive over there when you want to race. I spent a number of Fridays for a year or two at a track in Ashland, MA.
Forgive my rambling.