NASCAR gets embarrassed by rival series in TV ratings shocker

NASCAR has been battling a ratings problem over the course of the 2025 season, especially coming into the fall.

It feels like every week sees a fresh news bulletin about that Sunday's race dropping in viewership from the previous year, even as the playoffs gear up to their climax.

A confluence of factors meant that last Sunday's race wasn't just disappointing in isolation for NASCAR and the USA Network, but also in direct comparison to another motor racing series.

The Cup Series race brought in 1.717 million viewers (down some 25% from the Las Vegas fall race last year), and was outshone by drag racing series NHRA, which drew 1.872 million sets of eyeballs.

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NASCAR struggling for audience

While there were some significant mitigating factors – the Texas NHRA Fall Nations were shown on over-the-air FOX, with a lead-in from the NFL and its 7.2 million viewers – the comparison was stark.

In essence, more people likely chose to watch NASCAR's offering from Vegas, with the NHRA picking up some viewers from the NFL who simply didn't change the channel when the game finished.

The continued decline in Cup Series viewership this year continues to shine a light on the $7.7 billion TV deal which split the series' races between four broadcasters, with TruTV picking up a lot of the practice and qualifying sessions.

That increased fragmentation has made it more difficult than ever for the casual fan to know where any given NASCAR race will be shown and, while the Cup Series returns to NBC for the final three rounds of the playoffs, there are some fears that this weekend's F1 race at COTA could eat even further into that diminishing market share.

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