Hot-rodders aren’t just burning rubber on desolate roads — they’re taking over streets in major cities and daring police to stop them.

Officials in communities from Philadelphia to Los Angeles are struggling to corral late-night “sideshows,” in which drivers block off thoroughfares and intersections to perform smoke-filled burnouts, winding doughnuts and other dangerous and noisy stunts.

The illegal, “Fast & Furious”-style street exhibitions have gotten so bad in Maryland that state police earlier this year formed the Car Rally Task Force to crack down on the takeovers.

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“Our law enforcement partners go out there and not only try to shut down these illegal driving events, but also try to find those who are the perpetrators of organizing these events,” said Maryland State Police spokeswoman Elena Russo.

Motorists or pedestrians caught in the takeovers can be targeted for harassment or worse, and businesses and residents nearby are regularly trapped until police arrive.

The more robust law enforcement response in Maryland comes as hot rodders have been characteristically brazen in promoting and staging their events.

Gatherings are advertised on social media and are documented by camera crews. Spectators often start fires and shoot off fireworks to complement the action.

Since this summer, Maryland State Police say the task force not only has made arrests for disorderly conduct and reckless and negligent driving, but officials say they’ve also found illegal guns.

Dozens of sideshows have been broken up in the past month, mainly in cities running along the Interstate 95 corridor that connects the District of Columbia to Baltimore.

Arrests for driving infractions and illegal weapons have also come from the enforcement sweeps, with two men from Virginia’s Tidewater region getting nabbed for several gun charges just outside of Baltimore late last month.

Filmmaker Yakpasua Zazaboi, who made a documentary in the early 2000s about the sideshows and their place in California’s car culture that’s often credited with the hot-rod resurgence, said the testosterone-fueled urge to do something “edgy and exciting” is powering the allure of the wild takeovers.

The pandemic also played a part in their growth, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures. The lockdowns of the COVID-era emptied out urban and suburban roadways, and bored, mostly young “gearheads” were quick to take advantage by turning deserted late-night streets into muscle-car playgrounds.

Now they’re part of a phenomenon that Mr. Zazaboi called “the most popular motorsports event in the country.”

But mixing illegal guns with the exuberance from the sideshows’ largely young, male demographic has produced deadly outcomes at times.

Sacramento police said two people were gunned down at two different sideshows last month.

A July takeover in Los Angeles saw a 15-year-old boy shot dead and another teen wounded after authorities said the boys witnessed a robbery at the illegal car meet.

And Guillermo Caballero, 20, was shot and killed in May when Chicago police said an angry mob surrounded his car and fired on him as he tried to drive around a sideshow.

Onlookers and participants at the takeovers — which can easily attract a crowd of 100 or more — also often become confrontational with police.

Nearly a dozen sideshows sprouted up in Philadelphia last month, and officers who went to the various scenes had their patrol cars attacked.

A similar story played out in Indianapolis, also in September, when a group of men threw road signs and cones at police cruisers. Authorities said one person fired shots into the air before speeding off.

A Cleveland police officer had his squad car overtaken by dozens of people last month as well, with the belligerents jumping on his vehicle and beating on its hood during the chaos.

“They’re not just a bunch of kids doing doughnuts,” San Diego Police Sgt. John Ampol told the “Police1” podcast earlier this year. “There are so many ancillary crimes that they were involved in on top of what they were doing with these sideshows.”

These incidents don’t include the inherent danger of the stunts themselves.

Three people were hit by a spinning car during an April sideshow in Portland, Oregon.

That same month in Los Angeles, a woman was knocked unconscious while taking a selfie after a spinning car lost control and slammed into her at a takeover.

L.A. was also where police said Elyzza Guajaca was killed in a crash last Christmas. The driver involved fled the scene.

But much to the chagrin of law enforcement, the sideshows appear to dissipate as soon as authorities arrive.

Philadelphia Deputy Police Commissioner Michael Cram said in September that trying to arrest anyone at the takeovers is like playing “a game of whack-a-mole.” He added that participants “just move from one location to another.”

Legislators are starting to give law enforcement more tools to cut down on the takeovers.

State lawmakers in Connecticut introduced a bill earlier this year that would suspend or outright revoke someone’s license if they join in on the sideshows.

California Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat, signed multiple bills into law in September that will allow police greater latitude to seize and impound vehicles linked to the sideshows.

And just this week, Cleveland’s City Council introduced a bill that would ban burnouts and donuts, as well as give police the ability to confiscate steering wheels and tires, if a driver is participating in the exhibitions.

“We need to get the attention of these street outlaws, who think this is the wild, wild west and they can do anything they like on our Cleveland roads and parking lots,” said Ward 8 council member Mike Polensek.

Other lawmakers, such as Oakland City Council member Noel Gallo, have worked for years to give the sideshow drivers a space to perform that isn’t a public nuisance.

One area Mr. Gallo suggested was the parking lot of the Oakland Coliseum, but neighbors pushed back on the idea due to expected noise issues.

Mr. Zazaboi, the documentarian who’s covered the sideshow culture, said local politicians should figure out a solution with promoters instead of treating this purely as a law enforcement matter.

He said more laws criminalizing drivers and spectators won’t squelch a natural youthful instinct to challenge authority.

The filmmaker suggested lawmakers are better off finding a regulated way for the motorists to test each others’ skills, such as the Legal Pit events being hosted across the country.

Legal Pits essentially give drivers an asphalt lot to do everything they already do illegally at neighborhood intersections — a situation Mr. Zazaboi called an “absolute f——— nightmare” for people living by the takeover sites.

The rebellious nature of the upstart motorsport should look familiar, the filmmaker said, because NASCAR has its roots in Prohibition Era bootleggers before it evolved into a mainstream sports league.

As for the “knuckleheads” who bring weapons to the shows, Mr. Zazaboi said it’s unfair to let a handful of criminals shade peoples’ perceptions of sideshows.

“I used to be out at sideshows for well over a decade. I never carried a damn gun in my life. People had kids out there, all that kind of stuff. So it wasn’t the culture that was doing it. It was certain individuals that were doing it.”