Netflix powered NASCAR

NASCAR's audience is shifting. Where motorsport viewership has generally stalled, NASCAR's opening rounds this season bucked the trend — and a large part of that comes down to a familiar playbook: the Netflix docuseries.

The Netflix strategy isn't a guaranteed win

Fly-on-the-wall docuseries have become the go-to move for growing a sport's audience. Formula 1's Drive to Survive is the standout success since 2019, and golf's Full Swing found an audience too, but tennis's Break Point struggled to get the access needed to hook viewers and wasn't renewed. NASCAR's own series, Full Speed, has fared well, landing in Netflix's top 10 and pulling in a new audience — Nielsen found 88% of the show's first-week viewers hadn't watched the previous season's championship race.

A younger, more diverse fanbase

NASCAR's Chief Marketing Officer Peter Jung has said the strategy is about bringing people together through racing — and it appears to be reaching Gen Z in particular. NASCAR banned Confederate flags at events in 2020, and Jung noted the sport's fanbase has become considerably more multicultural over the past decade, alongside a dedicated TikTok presence with millions of followers.

Turning attention into revenue

With a seven-year, $7.7 billion media rights deal now in place and roughly $400 million in annual revenue, NASCAR is well placed to capitalise on this new attention — but doing so means managing more complex sponsorship deals and, crucially, capturing first-party data on new fans so they can be nurtured into lifelong supporters. That's where a strong CRM system, and AI to help scale operations, will matter most as the sport works to convert this moment into lasting growth.