This is not your father's space race.
Then: A communist country launched a manned space capsule into orbit, before non-communists managed to even get a sub-orbital manned space flight. That was, of course, the U.S.S.R. and the U.S.A.
Now: A communist country launched a manned space capsule into orbit, before non-communists managed to even get a sub-orbital manned space flight. This is China and the folks trying for the X-prize. This time it's not really a race between countries.
This time there is a race, but the X-prize folks are racing each other. They aren't a major, or even a minor, government seeking propaganda points. They want the prize money, sure, but likely will spend so much to get it that it really isn't the point. The point is making a successful space flight. Ideally to be the first private endeavor to do so. But even after someone claims the prize, the rest will not just quit and go home.
There will be more private space shots, with various designs. Some will work. Some will flop. Some of it may look like newsreels of the early days of aviation, only with more spectacular and painful failures. It may look like a free-for-all, which it should. Someone will figure out ways to make money, whether by launching satellites, or by selling rides to people willing and able to pay, or perhaps something else still.
Sure, space has been reached before, but each time by governments. And that shows that getting there is possible. It can be done. But the interesting thing is about to happen. The frontier is about to open up. And maybe, finally, some of the good things we thought might be in our future at the beginning of the 'space age' will start to happen. We will be living in interesting times.