it's the most inexpensive car sold in Canada, so, the Motorsports In Action team built some up, and went racing, then other people got the bug to go racing cheap (like Mazda Miata used to be) in identical cars (like IROC used to be)
you can read about the racing of the Micra all over the car enthusiast magazine websites, or http://speed.academy/racing-in-the-nissan-micra-cup-big-fun-in-a-small-package/
In 1995, it topped the small car class in a reliability survey of four to six-year-old cars undertaken by the German Automobile Association,
with 7.5 recorded breakdowns per 1,000 vehicles for four-year-old Micras
and 11.5 for six-year-old cars:
this compared with 8.0 breakdowns per 1,000 cars for four-year-old Volkswagen Polos
and 15.3 for six-year-old Polos
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nissan_Micra
http://www.micracup.com/Micra-Cup-Nissan-Car
http://www.nissan.ca/en/cars/micra