Even though this is an old post and after reading the answers without any images to back up what is being said, I know there are people out here who might stumble on this very same question.

I am posting in hopes to help a newbi who might be wondering how to photograph a moving subject at night.

A 18-55 kit lens on a foot ball field with awesome lighting might work but most racing of cars the lighting is horrible plus the asphalt and or concrete will reflect the cars color, Sadly we all forget that before digital cameras we had to use high iso/asa films to get usable night shots of any race cars racing at night, even during the day most race car photographers used high iso/asa film.

This high iso/asa film left a grainy image as do our aps-c/full frame sized cameras do. Even full frame digital cameras have grain at high iso/asa speeds. Nothing wrong with that at all. It adds a depth to the images that has long since been forgotten. look at any old hot rod or car magazine and notice the grainy images that were the norm.

I shoot night race cars all the time between iso3200 and 6400 with a 50mm 1.8 lens at f1.8, the problem is the reflection of the cars color saturates the image, as our CCD/CMOS sensors are so sensitive to light the images do become washed out with the cars color. (if the car is yellow the concrete will have a yellow cast of color) I found that shooting with the saturation set to a (-) or all the way down will help minimize this effect.

Also start learning how to pan the camera with the car, I pan just a little bit faster than the car to yield a motion effect while still retaining the details.

Good luck on shooting. All images shot with a Nikon D200 hand held at f1.8 One other thing I have not herd anyone mention is that lower megapixel cameras absorb light better than high megapixel cameras do in part to the pixels being bigger and allowing more light in plus a fast prime lens 1.4/1.8. will get the job done.

"If your looking for real unedited images that is." I also hate editing or edited fake looking images my self.

f1.8 @ 1/180th at -3EV handheld no flash iso3200 Nikon D200