With the start of the 2025 season comes the start of NASCAR’s new TV deal, and with that comes the introduction of streaming.
For the first time ever, five NASCAR Cup Series races will be available via streaming exclusively on Amazon Prime Video. Five other races will have the option of watching via Max or TNT. Of course, the rest of the broadcasts will be on network (FOX and NBC) or cable TV (FS1 and USA), as has been the case in the past.
With cable being as expensive as ever and streaming costs on the rise, subscribing to both for the entire year could mean the most money a viewer has ever spent to watch races.
But it doesn’t have to be. Below are the cheapest legal ways to watch every NASCAR Cup Series race this season. Obviously, there are sketchy websites where you could watch every race for free, but I can’t advocate for those. Besides, you’ll save yourself from viruses, countless popups and questionable content while the whole family is watching.
The NASCAR Xfinity and Craftsman Truck series won’t be included in this because then it could get too into the weeds. Xfinity is on The CW the entire season, and most people only need to purchase an antenna to pick up the station. You can get a great antenna for just over $100 or a decent one for under that. With most of the plans concocted here, you will only miss a few Truck races.
All of the options will have a few key components. First off, buy an antenna like mentioned earlier. There are nine Cup races you can watch for absolutely free with an antenna. The other involves subscribing to Sling’s Blue package, which only cost $45.99 a month. You can even get half off for the first month if you’re a first-time subscriber.
Sling only has roughly half of the cable channels but it has all of the cable channels that broadcast NASCAR. Sling’s full-channel package is $60.99 a month, while other options like Hulu Live TV and YouTube TV are even more expensive. So you can see the savings starting already.
You’ll also need to subscribe to Prime and Max at various points. For both of those you could potentially get a 30-day free trial if you haven’t signed up for them before. And with Sling, Prime and Max, you may even get special offers when you try to cancel. You always get better treatment from a service if you threaten to leave than if you are loyal to them.
Here are the different plans. None of them include the cost of an antenna, a discount for the first month of Sling or free trials of Prime and Max. Pay attention especially to the dates of canceling and resubscribing for even more savings.
Also, it’s important to note that subscribing to Sling Blue, Prime and Max for the entire year would cost a total of $758.87. So the savings here are substantial.
Watch Everything Plan (Total Cost: $395.54)
With this plan, you’ll see every race, practice and qualifying session while still saving nearly half of what you’d pay if you fully subscribed to everything for the full year.
The first step is to subscribe to Sling Blue on Feb. 1 for Cook Out Clash qualifying and heat races on FS1. The next is to have your antenna set up to get FOX by Feb. 2 for the Clash and the first three points races. The catch with Sling is it doesn’t have network channels, so that’s why you need the antenna for all races on FOX and NBC.
On Feb. 22, the day of the qualifying at Atlanta Motor Speedway’s first race (practice and qualifying for the Daytona 500 will be on FOX/FS1), subscribe to Prime Video for $8.99 a month. That’s where practice and qualifying will be for the first half of the season excluding the Clash, Daytona and the All-Star Race. Make sure it’s Prime Video and not the full Prime account.
Cancel Prime sometime between March 23 and before you get billed again on April 22. Sign up for Prime again on April 26 for qualifying at Talladega Superspeedway. What that will do is move your billing date from the 22nd of each month to the 26th. Prime’s coverage ends on June 22 at Pocono Raceway, so this will allow you to cancel before you get billed again on June 26 and save you $8.99.
Be sure to cancel Sling before you get billed on June 1, as there will not be any races on cable following May 18 until later in the year. The five races after that will be on Prime, which you already have at this point. Cancel Prime prior to June 26 like mentioned above.
Practice and qualifying for the rest of the season will be on Max, as will the next five races. Subscribe to Max for $9.99 a month on June 27 for qualifying at Atlanta Motor Speedway’s second date. When Cup races at Iowa Speedway on Aug. 3, sign back up for Sling Blue.
To save you money on Max like with Prime, cancel it between July 28 and when you get billed again on Aug. 27. Resume that subscription on Aug. 30 for practice and qualifying for the Southern 500. Cancel before your Sept. 30 billing date and renew on Oct. 4 for Charlotte Motor Speedway ROVAL practice and qualifying. Doing all that will save you an additional $9.99.
Once the checkered flag for the season flies at Phoenix Raceway flies on Nov. 2, cancel Sling and Max so you don’t get billed again on Nov. 3 and 4.
With this plan, you’d only miss two Truck races.
No Practice & Qualifying Plan (Total Cost: $294.92)
If you don’t plan on watching practice and qualifying (including the heat races for the Clash), then you can save even more money. But it’s all about the attention to details and canceling on the right days to maximize savings.
With this plan, sign up for Sling Blue on Feb. 13 for the Daytona 500 Duels. Cancel it before you get billed on March 13 and then resubscribe on March 16 for the Las Vegas Motor Speedway race (can do March 14 if you want to see Trucks). Cancel again before April 16 (or April 14 if you rejoined on March 14). The lone off week is after that, followed by Talladega, which is on FOX. So don’t join Sling again until May 4 for the Texas Motor Speedway race (May 2 for Trucks).
After the FOX season wraps up, cancel Sling before June 4 (or June 2 if you joined back May 2).
Then subscribe to Prime on May 25 for the Coca-Cola 600. The last of the five Prime races is June 22, so cancel before June 25 so you won’t get billed again.
Sign up for Max on June 28 for those fives races. That last race is July 27, so be sure to cancel before July 28 so you again avoid a second billing.
Lastly, go back to Sling Blue on Aug. 3 for the first race on the NBC season. Like in the previous section, cancel before Nov. 3.
Of course, all races on FOX and NBC must be watched with an antenna and can’t be watched on Sling or either streaming service.
With this plan, you will only miss three Truck races if you followed the dates in parenthesis.
Barebones Plan (Total Cost: $248.93)
If you love a good bargain, then this is the plan for you. This plan does not include practice, qualifying, heat races, Duels or any non-points races. But you’ll still have access to the Clash with an antenna and can watch practice and qualifying during the months you have Prime and Max.
Sign up for Sling Blue on March 9 for the first race on FS1. Use an antenna for all the races before that.
Cancel before you get billed again on April 9. Get back with Sling on April 13 for the race at Bristol Motor Speedway. Those four days of not being subscribed may not seem like much, but otherwise you would get billed again on May 9 and spend $45 just for the one last points race on FS1 on May 11. Canceling and resuming in the dates above means you wouldn’t be billed again until May 13, so cancel before then.
From that point on in the season, do everything listed in the No Practice & Qualifying plan. With this plan, you’ll miss eight of the 25 Truck races but will get all of the playoffs in that series.
Following these plans will save you $300-$500, and possibly more than that pending your current cable situation. If you really only watch TV for racing, then don’t waste money on a bunch of channels you don’t watch in months you don’t need them. Use one of these plans and buy yourself something nice with the savings.
Michael Massie joined Frontstretch in 2017 and has served as the Content Director since 2020. Massie, a Richmond, Va., native, has covered NASCAR, IndyCar, SRX and the CARS Tour. Outside of motorsports, the Virginia Tech grad and Green Bay Packers minority owner can be seen cheering on his beloved Hokies and Packers.
I love talking to people who “Cut the cord ” and saved $100 because they are so smart. Then they tell me about their seven subscriptions they have to cover all the channels they want…
There is another option which I will explore. Not watch the races that I can’t get or listen to them on Sirius and go to a bar to watch the last hour. While this plan may gain some viewers, it will also cost them some. Between that and the ability for local CW affiliates to cover whatever the heck they want to put on will definitely change my viewing habits this year. Even heroin addicts run out of money. This TV deal benefits teams, drivers and Nascar at the expense (literally) of the fans.
I remember many years ago when there was a rumor about NASCAR making it’s own channel & we’d have to pay $15/month to watch races. Oh, those greedy bastards at NASCAR! Look how much that would’ve saved us.
That’s one thing I liked about Indycar and Peacock. They would show the race live as well as keep them up where I could log in and watch them whenever I wanted throughout the season. I’m generally doing other stuff on the weekends, so paying that $15 a month for the ability to watch the race on a weeknight after work was worth it – even better was the fact they cut out the commercials for the replays. I could watch most Indycar races in about 1.5 – 2.0 hours if I skipped all the pre-race stuff (which I did). We’ll see what the new TV package does here.
Problem with NA$CAR is how long the races are. 1.5-2.0 hours after dinner is doable. I wouldn’t spend 3-4 hours after work to watch one. There was a time when the longer distance at high speeds contributed to attrition during the race – durability was a factor. Those days are long gone. I think they should shorten the races by at least half in most instances.
The very existence of an article with this title shows how expensive it is to follow what is clearly a diminished “product.” If it was worth paying for, no one would blink an eye. We certainly didn’t in the 90s.
NASCAR doesn’t care if we watch the races. They only care about generating ad revenue.
TSN is televising ALL the Cup events this season. They will be affected by tariffs if Trump can find a way to put money in his pockets.
Apparently CNN is in your programming guide.
I think the author is just a shill for Sling TV and others. Sling TV is a dirty company. Let me explain: Last year I signed on to Sling TV just for the ability to watch FS1, which NASCAR was using for a number of races. I’m not one of those people who look at my bank statement with a microscope every minute, so, blame me if you want…..but after about 4 months I realized that Sling TV was double billing me each month. Sling has an address in Colorado, but any calls to them go to a call center in the Philippines. Calls to them produced zero results. Went to my bank and they connected me with the fraud dept. The fraud dept. immediately credited me with those double billings. However, those rotten pricks at Sling TV disputed it. How can you dispute double billing?? Sounds silly, but they did. It took about 6 months, but my Bank prevailed. Kudos to my bank CITI. They worked hard to protect a single customer like me. As to anybody wanting to take the authors advice and get Sling TV……..caveat emptor! Just check online and you will see thousands of people complaining about the double billing with Sling TV.
Guess I’ll be watching fewer races this year
What a big rip-off; die-hard NASCAR fans will definitely pay out for streaming services this season and 6 more on top of that. I can’t begin to fathom their reasoning other than the almighty $$$ and their greed. Needless to say, NASCAR will not be airing on any of the 6 tv’s throughout my house. Hopefully I will be fortunate enough to be at the casino when a race airs; $250 to $500 is totally crazy.