NASCAR President Confirms International Interest Beyond Canada & Mexico; Uncovers Existing Roadblocks

NASCAR has been showing increasing interest in taking its races overseas for some time now. Every major move it makes echoes the single purpose of globalisation and subsequently attracts a newer generation of fans to the sport. The latest such moves came when the promotion renamed its Canadian Series to NASCAR Canada.

With the end of 2024 marking the end of its deals with major partners such as Comcast, NBC and Fox for title and media rights, the president of NASCAR, Steve Phelps, once again reiterated that his decisions will be focused on international arenas. And this time, he could eyeing expansion to outside just the Americas.

Steve Phelps underlines his international intentions with NASCAR

Ever since Rick Hendrick’s Garage56 project pushed NASCAR through to the 2023 Le Mans race, there have been strong speculations that the sport could soon enter foreign markets in Europe, the Middle East and India. In 2022, Brazil became the latest country to have a racing series along the lines of NASCAR Canada. As more countries are being analysed for possible entry points, Steve Phelps has now provided better clarity on things.

He said on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio, “Short-term, we will be talking about Canada and Mexico. (…) But we have got to talk to our race teams to figure out what that looks like [Other international racing series].  All those things are on the table. We are going to continue to be bold and push the envelope. We have a promise to our race fans that we are going to give them the best racing on the planet. I think we do that today, but we are going to have to keep challenging ourselves.”

While he did acknowledge that they were exploring overseas options, he also confirmed that they will not be having 38 races in 38 different countries.

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One of the prime updates to expect out of the offseason is an international Cup Series race. Heavy rumours clouded the current season about NASCAR striking a deal to hold one in Montreal. But we did not see that happen. As important as the influx of international drivers is to the promotion, so is taking races to circuits outside the homeland.

Talking about the same earlier this month, NASCAR CEO Steve O’Donnell said to Fox Sports, “When you look at our sport, and the ability to go into a marketplace, really grow the sport, we want to make sure we have all the levers in place to not just kind of come in and out, we want to build NASCAR within that particular country or marketplace (…) There’s been a lot of discussions in other areas, not only in the U.S. but other opportunities in North America and outside the U.S.”

Encouragingly, the top brass in NASCAR appears to be on the same lines when it comes to this topic. Hopefully, all these discussions and negotiations will result in us watching the likes of Denny Hamlin and Kyle Larson race it all out in never-seen-before territories.

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