Honestly I feel it's fucked up that they rape on prices but I kinda get it. Most race tracks are booked every weekend throughout the year, for local clubs to reserve them they need to pay an arm and a leg, which of course skyrockets the price of admission.
The cost to operate most of these places is atronomical, the measely amount of cash they make renting out a weekend prob isn't even worth the trouble. Honestly for them to do it at all astounds me, so I will give them credit for at least attempting to support amateur racers.
It sucks for us though because to improve driving at a race like limit is nearly impossible on publc roads, even being able to run full out on empty mountain passes only does so much good, going to a track is worth 10x more the experience.
This is why I choose to do autocross, for what I can afford it provides the greatest level of training, maybe not as good as track days, but I feel if I can improve greatly on basics for $20 a day then I will be able to achieve more when I pay $300 for a track weekend.