Nascar News

Why Are NASCAR’s TV Ratings DOWN In 2023?

NASCAR’s popularity and TV Ratings have been the subject of concern for the most part of the last 20 or so years and 2023 has become no different in this respect. The 2023 NASCAR ratings and viewership numbers have been down considerably after having years of stabilization and even growth leading up to it. So today we are going to look into all of this and try to figure out every reason why this is. Why are NASCAR’s TV ratings down in 2023?

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51 comments

Driversity April 12, 2023 at 10:44 pm

I think a lot of it lies within NASCAR not knowing how to market themselves to younger audiences

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Luciana Elite April 12, 2023 at 11:52 pm

And the games not being noob friendly enough to get new ppl to care

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Razor April 13, 2023 at 1:22 am

@Crazy But no popular NASCAR game apart from the expansion packs for “the holy sim-cade duo”

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Alex_Mac_ April 13, 2023 at 3:29 am

​@crazybut6641 It isn’t just the video game tho. It is a factor but overall broadcast quality and social media content quality for NASCAR both pail in comparison to F1 as well, and F1 is now beating NASCAR in the 18-49 demo.

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NASCAR JUNK April 13, 2023 at 6:01 am

NASCAR is a sport that requires a good attention span to watch. The younger generation literally has a 10 second attention span.

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Henry Grooten April 13, 2023 at 6:11 am

How to attract younger audiences is simple, bin off commercials, younger people much rather spent extra money then watch commercials, so put it on a streaming service, job done

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Nick Mangona April 12, 2023 at 10:48 pm

For me, there’s a million different reasons. For the most part TV ratings across all channels for all programs have been down for whatever reason. Next gen car hype has died down. Chase Elliott being injured could be playing a small role as well. Lack of advertising compared to last year possibly? And tbh these massive penalties and controversies that have been happening all season could be playing a factor too.

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Alex_Mac_ April 13, 2023 at 3:47 am

@Jk81 Plays Doesn’t matter, they’re still outpacing NASCAR in the 18-49. What’s NASCAR gonna do about it?

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Jk81 Plays April 13, 2023 at 3:51 am

@Alex_Mac_ switch away from cable would be a good start. TV is dying out and the new fans don’t care for ads and commercials. As long as you reasonably price your subscription people will pay for it.

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Casey smith April 13, 2023 at 7:50 am

@Run Rafa Run #THEBESTINTHEWORLD They were hoping for an outright fight (not just slap) this year between two celebrities that are into a massive feud.

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kpe30gc993 April 13, 2023 at 5:04 pm

Now that you mentioned advertising, it boggles the mind that the only NASCAR drivers currently starring in a major national commercial are Truex and Toni Breidinger, who doesn’t even compete in any of the 3 major series at the moment.

The ad breaks have proliferated the broadcasts to such a comical degree that it has felt like we’ve seen more commercials than racing, but it seemed Fox got better with this during the Bristol Dirt Race. I felt like they were better placed at that time.

I wish we would get better ads that actually star racing drivers and their cars that don’t try so hard to be sarcastic, preachy, or use Family Guy-esque reference humor if we absolutely have to see them so often. I’m tempted to think the atrocious commercials that take up most of the broadcast are a big reason behind the ratings drop as well as NASCAR’s rather broken and disorganized caution and overtime procedures, which are a separate story.

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Jk81 Plays April 13, 2023 at 5:37 pm

@kpe30gc993 it probably because TV commercials don’t have as big of a reach as it used to. Hence making it not worth paying drivers to be in commercials.

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Riley77 April 12, 2023 at 10:52 pm

1. Not having the current most popular driver
2. Most of the well known drivers have retired at this point
3. Too many commercials and bad broadcast
4. Not a lot of great races so far this season compared to last year. (I’ve honestly forgot about most of them already.)

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Jk81 Plays April 13, 2023 at 5:13 am

@Daniel Chai firstly Netflix started in 2018 so what F1 did since then is still working to keep fans entertained and attending. Secondly you are only taking the ratings from TV/Cable between F1 and NASCAR you are not including all the people that watched from their subscription service. TV/Cable is not the way of the future intact it is dying off and sports are realizing TV deals are not the way of the future. The racing in F1 will probably never change you are always going to have teams that produce dominant cars compared to the rest and it has happened all throughout its history. Unless you do stupid gimmicks like NASCAR is doing (stages) or make all the cars spec then you will never end up with more than 3 teams contending for a win every week.

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Daniel Chai April 13, 2023 at 5:21 am

@Jk81 Plays f1 used to have good racing. That’s a weak and lazy excuse.

As far as Netflix goes, it’s usually takes time for things to become popular and for it to stick. Most things are not overnight hits. It’s unrealistic to expect an f1 drama show on Netflix to be an overnight hit. It wasn’t and it sticks longer because it wasn’t a fad for a few weeks.

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Jk81 Plays April 13, 2023 at 5:39 am

@Daniel Chai it not a lazy excuse point out the last time you had more than 3 teams competing for wins every weekend? Not in the past 20 years at least. It was a overnight success that they instantly saw gains from. I will give you though it was not just a fad for a short time. Netflix is not the only thing F1 has done either. Your just making excuses for NASCAR making poor business decisions.

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Daniel Chai April 13, 2023 at 5:44 am

@Jk81 Plays I said nascar was in the opposite situation. They know that the most important thing is the on track product. They fixed it. Now they’re finally attacking the marketing problem. Which is why the next tv contract AC t is so important and why it’s huge for the sport that things are going well minus the charters.

F1 knows they don’t need to worry about the racing product because their fans are elitists who don’t care about parity. All they need is big names, big money, cool cars and drama. Different marketing approach than nascar simply because of what the sport is.

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Jk81 Plays April 13, 2023 at 5:54 am

@Daniel Chai and I am telling you that NASCAR isn’t going to fix its issues with a TV deal. TV is losing viewers why should a series sign a deal with outdated services. I would also say F1 fans are only elitist when it comes to NASCARs policy on wrecking people for positions. Makes the sport look like bush league with no talent. If NASCAR got rid of that I don’t think you would have the issue of people hating on the talent NASCAR brings to the table.

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OldRed91 April 12, 2023 at 11:11 pm

$15 per month for ad-free NASCAR streaming would be awesome. I pick up local channels with an antenna, and the only time I watch them is for NASCAR and IndyCar, if I can get a decent signal…

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OldRed91 April 12, 2023 at 11:13 pm

You’re absolutely right about the ads. For me, the “white flag presented by Credit One Bank” especially makes our sport look like a joke.

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Razor April 13, 2023 at 4:52 am

@Shawn Christianson we are one lap away from resumption of the race, presented to you by Chad’s Thundercocks Chicken Farms, the producers of the world’s manliest chicken breeds for the worlds biggest cockfights!

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Razor April 13, 2023 at 4:59 am

@Timothy Garcia why not do bank heists or use tobacco/weed/vape money?

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Ash Bissett April 13, 2023 at 5:49 am

I’m an Aussie who tried to get into nascar but the ads are so frequent and intrusive. I get that you’ve got to make money but the way it’s done is taking so much away from the race.

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Robin Simpson April 13, 2023 at 11:59 am

Had to end sometime, people have high expectations for entertainment Nascar is a elitist sport not the moonshiners of old, this is the modern Nascar and yes its not as entertaining

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Danny Block April 12, 2023 at 11:16 pm

This is one I knew you were gonna talk about, I ask and wonder why NASCAR’s ratings are down in the 75th season. I got some theories as to why I believe are down.

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JR April 12, 2023 at 11:28 pm

I agree on the streaming service. I’d gladly tack on another 10-15 a month to watch nascar races, so long as I’m not paying for 30% commercials. I took on f1, peacock (kind of iffy on that with commercials too) for Indy, and wrc plus and I have no regrets for the most part

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Jk81 Plays April 12, 2023 at 11:49 pm

This. If you have a streaming service that is not over priced and doesn’t have adds you are extremely more likely to get fans.

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John Boy April 12, 2023 at 11:47 pm

I’m a Jeff Gordon fan, but I still like watching and rooting for Brad and Kyle Larson. But I think we Gordon fans were spoiled because of how crazy awesome and well rounded he was… also, please have a season long system again… won’t happen now but please consider it!

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Shawn Christianson April 13, 2023 at 1:58 am

Agreed. NASCAR hasn’t been the same since he left

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Jwrailv&e April 13, 2023 at 2:27 am

My father watched every practice qualifying and race from the 80’s all the way to Jeff’s final full season race didn’t watch much at all until 2021 we liked what we saw last season was okay and by the third race this year we’ve both been just annoyed with the quality. It just doesn’t even feel like a “people’s” sport like who are they trying to appeal to?

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Big Hand April 13, 2023 at 5:10 pm

I like Jeff Gordon, Brad Keselowski and Kyle Larson as well.

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Jwrailv&e April 13, 2023 at 5:31 pm

@Big Hand Brad? I guess we all have our favorites and ones we hate, I’ll never forgive or forget Brad for costing Jeff the win and the championship in 2014 at Texas. He would’ve won that race even if he hadn’t he would’ve made homestead anyways because he won martinsville and then won homestead finally after 20 years.

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Roku TV April 13, 2023 at 5:39 pm

We do have a season long system now. We are guaranteed competition until the final race. Drivers used to be able to win the whole thing several races in advance under the old format

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Luciana Elite April 12, 2023 at 11:51 pm

My dad was one of those “watches every race and has been for 25 years” types and he stopped watching live simply because the Cable bill was to much of a rip off.
He’s happy to watch the race replays on YouTube

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chrisw443 April 13, 2023 at 6:22 am

Cup is on antenna TV which is free. He can still watch live.

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Casey smith April 13, 2023 at 7:47 am

@chrisw443 Broadcasting over the air TV in the USA is now Illegal.

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Scott Hageman April 13, 2023 at 4:27 pm

Which is sad, if that older generation would ditch cable and get a streaming service, it’d be cheaper, they’d still watch all races, with local channels and they could more of what they want to watch but trying to convince that generation that is like talking to a brick wall…..

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matt dyer April 12, 2023 at 11:55 pm

I think one of the biggest reason why the rating are down is because Nascar doesn’t give a damn about legitimacy anymore. They only care about gimmicks and entertainment. I think the fans are getting tired of it and stepping away.

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Jesse Lyon April 13, 2023 at 2:44 am

This is me, I am that fan. I’ve been saying this on every thread I see. I probably talk about how much I hate stage racing more than I actually watch.

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Joseph Harrison April 13, 2023 at 12:51 am

As a college student who watches online, the ads are the killer my roommates will come in and see and say “ dang this is a lot of ads” my girlfriend who I’m introducing to nascar almost fell asleep during cota and it’s ads. Mike joy saying “ crefit one bank final lap” does kill the mood just say final lap

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Gary Smith April 13, 2023 at 1:11 am

I got hooked on NASCAR in the early 90’s. Everything since has changed to bring in new fans, they seem to have left the old fans behind. Stage racing sucks, the new cars suck, the pit stops suck, 7 road course races suck,and dirt racing sucks. Hell most of the sponsors I don’t even recognize anymore. If it ain’t broke don’t try fixing it. The amount of people filling the seats should tell you something.

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JesusHippie April 13, 2023 at 1:18 am

People make a fair point about how TV habits have changed and are shifting towards streaming, but people will watch a program or event if it’s compelling enough. Some folks just aren’t comfortable with the reality that NASCAR is not as compelling as it used to be. There are ample reasons why ratings and attendance were skyrocketing in the 90s & 2000s.

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Tyler Hernandez April 13, 2023 at 2:23 am

I can agree with the fan push. When Gordon retired, the entire 2016 season, I might have watched like 7 races, when usually I would watch at least 30+. While in 2017 when I gave Chase a chance, I was back to watching every race

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Colton Manning April 13, 2023 at 3:10 am

You’re 100% right but you left one thing out. The original draw was the “win on Sundays, buy on Mondays”. Let the manufacturers design cars to win again without all the regs, and everyone will be more invested to see their brand win

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John Haas April 13, 2023 at 10:30 am

The manufacturers had input on the design of the cars and that’s why you see things like 18-in wheels

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Davis Owen April 13, 2023 at 4:55 am

What sticks in my mind is the downturn in viewership since the playoffs last year. I remember the horrendous tv ratings for the Bristol playoff race and I was shocked. I was in the camp of the gimmicks started to catch up, but what I really think it is at the moment is that build up to the race weekend hasn’t helped hype up each race. Like calling a 15 lap run practice is an absolute joke. It kinda forces me to just watch whatever highlights is available. Not trying to compare to Nascar and F1, but the Grand Prix weekend buildup is done just great on tv and especially on the YouTube and social media side of things. Like F1 has two completely different pre race or post race options on either ESPN or on YouTube. NASCAR doesn’t even do backseat drivers on tuesdays anymore and I actually liked that 20 minute segment and then watch y’all’s podcast on Wednesday. They don’t have legitimate content to carry into the weekend and for fans who want to indulge into the sport, they want to come close to eat and breathe this sport despite not being at the track. F**k the stupid skits Fox, i want an hour of practice on Friday’s, 30 minutes of it with qualify the next day/morning, then the race Saturday night or Sunday, and I want Mamba Smith, Alex Weaver, Reagan Smith and Adam Alexander pre-race and then then post race with Larry Mac, Jamie Mac and Matt Yocum (it doesn’t need to be this precise but you get the idea).

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Coolbreeze0988 April 13, 2023 at 5:08 am

I really miss walking into any store and seeing nascar drivers and branding everywhere. Changing paint schemes every week doesn’t allow for drivers to build brand recognition

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NASCAR JUNK April 13, 2023 at 6:07 am

I’ve been watching since I was 4, and I can tell that it’s definitely the increase of commercial breaks. Breaks used to occur every 15-20 minutes, but now it’s closer to 5-10. The declining broadcast quality, drivers retiring, and extended caution periods may also play a factor.

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Don Henry III April 13, 2023 at 11:36 am

That’s not true though. It was just posted after the 500 (When people whined about ads most recently) that there were far more commercials in the 90’s.

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Wyatt Jacobson April 13, 2023 at 10:57 am

I’ll tell ya, at least for me. This and last year are the first years I’m okay with missing a race and looking up the results. I feel totally disenfranchised with NASCAR and just go support my local tracks on the weekend because NASCAR today is nothing like the sport I grew up watching they’ve changed everything.

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Phillip Smith April 13, 2023 at 11:36 am

I think it boils down to people across the country finally being able to travel freely after covid. People are outside, not glued to Tv..plus I know i can catch all the highlights on social media whenever I get ready..

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