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The distance between the bottom of the car and the ground. Lower ride height lowers the center of gravity and can improve aerodynamic performance, but must be balanced against the risk of bottoming out over bumps.
Bentley defines it in Ultimate Speed Secrets: "The ride height is the distance between the road surface and the lowest point on the car. Often, this is different at the front than the rear. This difference is called rake — usually with the front lower than the rear. Adjustment of the ride height, particularly the rake, is used to tune the handling." He adds that "the ride height is usually determined by running the car as low as possible without the chassis bottoming." Staniforth's Competition Car Suspension quantifies the sensitivity: Nigel Mansell noted that "a variation of 1/8th inch in the ride height of his Williams FW11 could well be worth the gain or loss of 100 lbs of downforce" — demonstrating how ride height affects aerodynamics as well as mechanical grip through CG height and roll center geometry.