For a chassis, i say go with something from tamiya because you can get so many replacement/upgrade parts extremely easy online and possibly from your lhs.
theres the cheap TT01. Its super tough, probably the lowest priced chassis, and has a ton of hopup stuff. Out of the box though, its pretty fixed in terms of adjustability. I personally think its a great first car and i like the fact thats its not adjustable so that you can focus solely on how youre driving and not second guessing your car setup(as there is none). because its so low priced too you can still keep it if you want to get another chassis, and use the tt01 as a car people you want to get into the hobby to use.
a TB02 is another good one from tamiya. its also lower in price and is pretty similar to the TT01, though it comes with full ball bearings and an aluminum prop shaft. its also more adjustable and runs around 15 dollars more than the lower priced TT01s.
The E10 from HPI is a chassis that was recommended above, and is also good. its more pricey, but allows for a different motor placement that ads more weight to the front instead of the rear. Since it hasn't been around as long as the tamiyas, it doesn't have as many hopups.
There are other chassis, but i like those 3 since they are relatively well priced and are tough.
tennis courts are good surfaces because theyre super consistent throughout and don't have bumps.
It shouldn't be too expensive to get a good setup going. you can find a rolling chassis from 90-120 bucks(don't really need to get more expensive than that), or even a RTR TT01 for around 120. for a motor setup you can get one of those yeah racing brushless setups for around 80 bucks, and i'll assume you already have the radio gear. then its just batts and charger, though if you might have those too IF you were doing elec offroad with a 6 cell setup.

from rc mart, you can get a TB02($99.90), yeah racing brushless setup($79.90), lipo setup(1 batt, charger, and ac power supply $114.90, but you dont need the power supply if you just use a car batt(1 bat and charger) $82.99 or $113.99 with the charger and 2 batts) for $290. after that you need the radio gear, tires and a servo, but you should have the radio gear and servo already. As for tires, you can just get some ABS tubing/piping from the hardware store and cut yourself some tires, the tubing will cost like 5 bucks, and you get... many sets of tires.
If you don't want to go brushless or lipo, you will save alot of money(relatively speaking)