this sentence is testing idiom, "something is to x, what something is to y". Also the context post underline section is driving the structure, Ray parks and his moonshine OR Ray parks's moonshine. the portion post underline talks about "James Naismith and his peach baskets" so to make it comparable "Ray Parks and his moonshine" is right.

POE
A. Ray Parks and his moonshine are nonetheless to stockcar racing what - Ok
B. Ray Parks' moonshine is nonetheless to stockcar racing what - wrong comparison
C. Ray Parks and his moonshine are nonetheless to stockcar racing just as - wrong idiom
D. Ray Parks' moonshine is nonetheless to stockcar racing like - both idiom and comparison are wrong
E. Ray Parks made moonshine that is like - wrong meaning

You can simply use parallelism to come to your answer here.

The clause followed by the underlined part goes like
a and his b are to c

Hence we find that only A follows the same format.
Ans = A

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Posted from my mobile device

It's easy to boil down to A and C.

Between these two A is better.

Here's the original (official) version of this question: https://gmatclub.com/forum/a-leading-fi ... 51612.html
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Only on the basis of commonly used idiom
A is to B what C is to D
We can pick opinion A here.

Others are not the right idioms, and I hope people a little familiar to english language know this idiom.

One thing to note, an appositive (X's)
Can't be the same as the reference to a person (noun)
Eg.
Sounding like a cacophony, Johnny's voice is a nightmare.

We are referring "sounding like a cacophony" to "Johnny's voice"and not Johnny the person..

But the given sentence talks about a person when it says
"A figure unknown....",
Which is logically a person (who's been "an unknown figure") after the comma, and not person's something- moonshine in this case.

Posted from my mobile device

hi guys i have a doubt
A figure virtually unknown within the multibillion dollar NASCAR industry, Ray Parks and his moonshine are nonetheless to stockcar racing what James Naismith and his peach baskets are to basketball.

A figure is a singular subject

and Ray parks and his moonshine is plural subject ,this compound subject cant't refer to a figure in my opinion esp we know and as an additive pharase makes singular subject into plural.

kindly correct me

I have the same doubt. It is given 'A figure' so how can it be A ??

we need an idiom here, so C,D and E can be eliminated
out of A and B
A has a better parallel sttructure
RP and his moonshine are to SR what JN and his PB are to BB

so A it is


A figure virtually unknown within the multibillion dollar NASCAR industry, Ray Parks and his moonshine are nonetheless to stockcar racing what James Naismith and his peach baskets are to basketball.

A. Ray Parks and his moonshine are nonetheless to stockcar racing what
B. Ray Parks' moonshine is nonetheless to stockcar racing what
C. Ray Parks and his moonshine are nonetheless to stockcar racing just as
D. Ray Parks' moonshine is nonetheless to stockcar racing like
E. Ray Parks made moonshine that is like