The 2025 NASCAR media rights agreement brought about welcome and highly anticipated change.
NASCAR would make its streaming debut on Amazon Prime Video for five races a year from 2025 through 2031, and TNT would return for the first time since 2014 to broadcast another five (with HBO Max streaming the races).
New broadcasts allowed for new faces to shine on pit road and in the broadcast booths, and new innovations like Amazon’s extended post-race coverage have been adopted by the networks succeeding its five-race summer stretch.
The not-so-welcome change of the 2025 media deal, however, was the dwindling number of races that would be held on network TV.
In 2024, there were 20 points-paying NASCAR Cup Series on network TV: 10 each on FOX and NBC. In 2025 with the new media deal, that number is down to eight: four on FOX and four on NBC.
The Xfinity Series is available on network TV every single weekend through the CW, and in terms of viewership and accessibility, the 2025 season in that series has been a smashing success.
That can’t be said for Cup, where the number of races on network TV has decreased by almost 60%.
The nadir of 2025 viewership came at New Hampshire Motor Speedway in September, where a non-delayed playoff race on USA hit rock bottom with 1.29 million viewers.
With 32 races in the books for the 2025 season, the viewership margin between points races on network TV (highlighted in gold) and points races off network TV is drastic.
All five points races held on network TV have eclipsed 3.2 million viewers, while just one of the 27 points races off network TV eclipsed three million. Eleven of the 27 races on cable or streaming have dipped below two million viewers, including the last eight in a row.
The average viewership of the 32 points races this season comes in at 2.445 million viewers.
That is a 17.6% decrease from the 2.966 million average through the first 32 points races of 2024.
It’s not hard to see why.
Sixteen of the first 32 points races of 2024 were broadcast by either NBC or FOX, which is more than triple the amount through the first 32 races of 2025.
But it’s not just the lack of races on FOX and NBC that has led to a sharp viewership decline in 2025: there’s also been a decrease in viewership for the races on cable or streaming.
The 16 combined points races on FOX Sports 1 and USA in 2024 saw an average of 2.217 million viewers per race. The 27 points races on cable or streaming in 2025 have had an average viewership of 2.064 million, which marks a 6.9% decrease from last season.
What makes the 2025 viewership woes all the more disappointing is that the 2024 season saw an increase in viewership over 2023. The new media rights deal and the decrease of races on network TV in 2025 has led to a sharp decrease from the gains made last year, and with the new media deal running through 2031, there should be concern if the ratings and viewership numbers seen this year are on their way to becoming the new normal.
Stephen Stumpf is the NASCAR Content Director for Frontstretch and is a three-year veteran of the site. His weekly column is “Stat Sheet,” and he formerly wrote "4 Burning Questions" for three years. He also writes commentaries, contributes to podcasts, edits articles and is frequently at the track for on-site coverage.
Find Stephen on Twitter @stephen_stumpf
Back in the late 70’s or early 80s Nascar put all races on Network TV so more people could watch them. It was great because you always knew where to watch them. Now you never know where the races are. I’ve given up trying to find them. Nascar has become a “Show me the money company”. The heck with the fans!
regardless of where they were racing, on the east coast, you got home from church on sunday, changed clothes, made lunch and had racing. now i can’t keep track of what time any of the races start. atleast xfinity has all their races on one place, cw; and trucks on fs1. nascar gave the fans the heave-ho years ago and i guess they don’t want us back.
between the product that’s on the track and the wacky broadcast schedule, no wonder racing viewship decreases after the first 3-5 races. you get people with daytona cause of the off season, and just maybe there’s hope that the racing will be good.
Well said. They put Atlanta on in the winter and throw late Martinsville back on to the winter. Two races I’d like to attend, but no thanks!,
Agreed.
I’ve been to around 25 Martinsville races over the years. It’s not even a consideration anymore. I can handle chilly weather, but if I have a choice, I won’t deal with it. I may not be going anyway as I don’t enjoy big public events as much as I once did, but the potential of cold weather makes it an easy decision to stay home.
Not to mention Martinsville is mind-numbingly boring unless the track is hot, and therefore slick. The cars are on rails in cold weather at Martinsville, and I don’t think that particular problem is the current gen car. If the track is slick, Martinsville is a blast. Plenty of passing, and good close quarters racing. If it’s not slick, it’s a parade.
it was bad when atlanta was ran around st patrick’s day. but february weather here in ga is always a crap shoot. they need to run daytona and then head west til march.
And yet network Fox TV has the Indycar races. And I thought NASCAR had more ratings and more fans than Indycar.
Maybe FOX wants to televise a real “race” without gimmicks on their main network!
Hey Kevin,
First and foremost, I enjoy your perspectives here, and your balanced way of presenting them, without lapsing into hyperbole. Please don’t take a couple of dissents from my humble corner of the world as trolling, or being argumentative. I just enjoy the discussion, as a fellow auto racing fan.
I think a couple of things happened here. Before Fox, Indycar sold rights to NBC for a song, mostly in an attempt to get more eyeballs on their sport. It didn’t really work.
Then, Fox bought the rights, but as I’m sure you know, shortly thereafter, Fox also bought a stake in the Indycar series. Seems reasonable to think the TV contract was secured while discussions about buying in were happening privately.
It only makes sense they’d give Indycar the red carpet treatment on their flagship stations, as any growth in Indycar just turns around and lines Fox’s pockets on the back end of the deal.
Ahhh, no I did not know that Fox bought a stake in the sport. That makes more sense now, thank you.
Frustration finding race coverage. I can’t be the only one bewildered when looking for a race. NASCAR needs to find a network and stay with it. I turn to something else instead wasting time surfing streaming apps and tv networks
I’m finding it tougher to figure out which station has the MLB playoffs this week. I know NASCAR is either on USA or NBC.
Believe you are not the only one
It used to be that you could at least keep up with various racing series by watching RPM Tonight. They covered mostly Nascar, but also Indy and occasionally F1. It was a good way to keep up to date and get start times, networks, etc. For some reason, with everyone trying to find information, none of the networks are smart enough to put on a central place where fans can get the latest. I still miss Dr. Jerry Punch and Dick Bergman giving us the latest.
I’m sure viewership is down because most people tune in to watch a race not commercials i know commercials are necessary to pay the bills but there are now more laps ran under commercial breaks than not. There was a time when if there was an incident during the commercial break they would cut back to the race but not anymore nothing interups the alley mighty commercial nascar sold out it’s loyal viewers for commercials… I’ve been watching nascar for 20 plus years but I’m not going to pay for a streaming service or more cable services to watch more commercials and less racing
Worse yet, it seems the networks have taken side by side coverage as an excuse for even more commercials. Typically, it was always a two minute break for ads, but now, the breaks are often three minutes. I could stomach this a little more easily if they’d leave the ticker up with running order and intervals. Also, they typically just lock the camera in on the leader, making side by side pointless the majority of the time. Then the announcers yammer about “you won’t miss a thing”. Sure, so long as anything which could have been missed happens within ten car lengths ahead or behind the leader.
I also recall when they’d break into commercials to update any incidents, but as you noted, this never happens these days.
This is why I never watch a race live anymore. I will find something to do for at least an hour after the race is slated to start before I tune in. I then use the DVR to skip all breaks. Though Amazon had less commercials, I did the same…I started the stream well after the green flag, and skipped what breaks they did have.
I think lack of commercials is part of why F1 is growing so rapidly in the US. The racing is often noncompetitive, but there are zero commercials during any race, and zero commercials during any active qualifying session.
I agree to some extent but there are not more laps run during commercials.
It’s inevitable that streaming is the future. Maybe NASCAR is just a little bit ahead of times but it will work out. Cable tv is disappearing little by little.
You need to show more races on network television
Maybe if cars could pass instead of follow the leader that might help I have watch nascar for years no longer very boring its like an NBA game just wait for the last few laps
NASCAR lost me years ago. Fox began the demise with its constant attempts at creating records and firsts to reference, their constant efforts to put celebrities on tv and terrible announcers. Then NASCAR decided to expand their “big tent” and attract new viewers with stage racing and playoffs. The irony is the harder they tried to expand their audience the more they lost the old school racing fans. The fact that they have cookie cutter tracks and identical cars is a joke as well. They aren’t the only ones who lost their way… the nfl has the same issues . How many people have turned off the nfl as they had to constantly show Taylor Swift and rig games for kc. Bull crap sissy rules, celebrity worship and woke bullshit has cost the league a lot of viewers and fans. At least with racing we still have a men’s division in sprint cars and the outlaws
I’ve lost interest in NASCAR racing. I’m a truck driver with no cable access on the road. I watch the old ones though
The outright is, that we beefed know where to watch the race or when. Case in point, last week at Charlotte, all reports said it wouldn’t be televised, yet it was. I stumbled upon it by accident, to catch the last stage of the race.
I’ve been watching races my whole life. When Nascar decided to start fixing what wasn’t broke is when I started losing interest. Not sure there’s anything good about the so called play off format they started back in 2014 or 2015 when ever they did it, doesn’t matter, fact is, that’s when I stopped caring about watching. I love racing, I watch the ixfinity series these days, don’t much care for what the cup series does because of what they’ve done to the car’s.. I appreciate all the safety features, but have no use for the car’s and what’s transpired there over the years and I’m not a fan of stage racing. I’d find them every week no matter what channel there on if they would just go back to real racing for 36 races and crown the guy that got the most points champion like the way Bill France Sr. designed it way back when. That my friends would bring a whole bunch of people back. Not just to the TV, but back to the race tracks period.. Commercials pay for what you see, I’m good with that, I personally just lost interest in all the changes to the product.