Nikon D3000 Shutter speed won't go past 1/200?

We want to capture motion in sports mode and i heard i have to crank it up to 1/500 but it won't work? It stops at 1/200

If you are in Auto mode or have the flash up then the camera shutter will not allow faster than 1/200th as this is the max shutter/flash synch speed.

You need to either:

Shoot without flash (will need lots of light to allow a 1/500th exposure)

Get an external Nikon speedlight with high speed flash synching (sb-600? Sb-900?)

If you have you flash turned on, this is to be expected. The maximum sync speed with flash is 1/200th second.

This Saturday, I shot dragsters for over 4 hours without flash at shutter speeds of from 1/800th second to 1/2000th second.

Get of the P&S modes and use either Aperture priority or using the cameras light meter, the manual mode.

It is rare that you will need a shutter speed faster than 1/1000th second to capture action and sports. The higher shutter speeds occur when you are attempting to reduce the depth of field, using a larger aperture. Your D3000 can shoot as fast as 1/4000th second