Race director here that mainly promotes races in the Hampton Roads area a few hours from DC. You don’t see many road races anymore because the expenses are very high compared to a crit and the permits and permissions are harder to secure for longer courses that cannot be closed.
To give you an idea of what it costs to put on a race I’ll use figures from my most recent crit I put on about a month ago. Total expenses were $4k. USAC rider insurance fees are $5 per unique rider, I had 160 unique riders, total USAC insurance fees ($800), 4 officials ($550), lunch for officials ($80), USAC Event permit and additional insured certificates ($250), police to block entrance road of industrial park ($300), porta potties and traffic cone rental ($500), prize money ($1,200), Miscellaneous expenses ($400).
If this had been a road race I would have to have additional police to block intersections, Moto officials, additional insurance for follow and lead vehicles, more complicated permits because of the larger area being used. Additional expenses could be anywhere from $2k-??? depending on the event. The crit I put on ended up clearing $1k, so I would need over 200 unique riders to get close to breaking even. That is a tough ask in my local racing scene. More doable in MABRA where you are from.