NASCAR is revving up its efforts to grow digitally. The sanctioning body knows that modernizing its strategy for fan engagement will be key to reaching out to younger and newer audiences. Keeping long-term sustainability in mind, the sport wants to make use of the digital sports landscape to expand its reach, with the hope of emulating Formula 1’s model to create engaging content, particularly on social media platforms such as YouTube.

Despite having over a million followers on the platform, NASCAR believes that adapting its digital approach will be key to growing on YouTube. Thankfully, the stock car racing series can take cues from Formula 1’s blueprint to improve their content and engagement.

NASCAR outlines goals for 2025

Who doesn’t love Formula 1’s YouTube channel? The global motorsports series has perfected the way it engages with fans on the social media platform, creating captivating content that includes race highlights, driver interviews, and behind-the-scenes documentaries about all the drama, action, and controversy that is not typically covered on a race day. It’s a lesson NASCAR can learn from, especially when it comes to not just increasing the overall number of subscribers but creating a better experience for fans by making use of the platform’s capabilities to the fullest.

Sharing his aim for 2025, NASCAR’s Senior Vice President and Chief Digital Officer Tim Clark said, “We’re happy with some of the progress we’ve made on YouTube, but I think we would acknowledge that we’re not where we think we could be.” As things stand, NASCAR has 1.35 million subscribers on the platform, while Formula 1 has a staggering 11.5 million followers on YouTube, which highlights the significant gulf between the two motorsports disciplines in how their digital strategy is being implemented.

According to Social Blade, NASCAR’s statistics on YouTube leave much to be desired. The channel has experienced only an 18% growth in the last year, going from 1.15 million followers to 1.35 million subscribers since February 2024. They have uploaded over 20,000 videos on the social media platform, amassing over 870 million viewers in their history. In comparison, Formula 1 has only uploaded 8,275 videos so far but has over 7.52 billion views. Clearly, the stock car racing series needs to implement a different strategy to get better results on the platform, to prioritize quality over quantity.

What does this mean for the future? The sanctioning body is expected to explore new content formats for YouTube in 2025, which may include interactive Q&A sessions with prominent figures in the sport and collaboration with popular influencers and content creators, such as Eric Estepp to expand their reach. It’s clear as day that NASCAR needs to modernize its approach to appeal to the younger and newer audiences, and a strategy to tap into unexplored markets needs to be considered, which may include the stock car racing series hosting events internationally.

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Clark details strategy for NASCAR’s digital expansion

NASCAR has a plan in place going into 2025. In a sport as cutthroat as NASCAR, where the finest margins make all the difference, capitalizing on the many controversies, and on-track drama as well as an inside look into the drivers’ lives is a sure-shot recipe for success. The sanctioning body isn’t taking its commitment to expanding its digital footprint lightly and has invested significant time and resources to create more engaging content for fans going forward.

Speaking to the Sports Business Journal, Tim Clark, Senior Vice President and Chief Digital Officer of NASCAR said, “You got the new production facility in Concord [N.C.], the new media partners. We are building a content team and infrastructure that we are really bullish on leading us into the future. Whether it’s original content and a Netflix show, whether it’s original projects that will be on Amazon, content on our social media channels, YouTube.”

Just like the Formula 1: Drive to Survive Netflix series, the sanctioning body needs to do more to promote its own NASCAR: Full Speed on social media as well, particularly YouTube. After a blockbuster first season, the critically acclaimed docuseries has been renewed for another season, which will be airing in 2025. A big reason for Formula 1’s success in recent years, particularly in the United States, is because of their Netflix show, and NASCAR can follow suit by using their YouTube platform to share snippets of the series with motorsports enthusiasts.