NASCAR’s $7.7 Billion Journey Off to a Rocky Start With Another Race Marred for Fans

Remember the 2024 Daytona 500 race? FOX Sports accrued a ton of backlash for its broadcasting issues. NASCAR fans complained that they missed crucial parts of the Great American Race just because the cameras were focused elsewhere. Then the coverage of the race finish was also controversial. People looked forward to 2025 when FOX’s involvement is cut down. However, now, a fresh problem is here.

In November 2023, NASCAR signed a $7.7 Billion media rights deal to rope in new media giants – Amazon Prime, TNT Sports, and The CW. The last among them caught attention during last season’s Xfinity Series playoff cutoff race at Bristol when the CW took over NBC Sports’ duties. However, its official debut this season has already stirred up controversy.

NASCAR’s new partner making a poor impression

Hardcore NASCAR fans would always try to be at the racetrack. However, people rely on media partners for online coverage due to personal obligations. But when even that is not afforded, things can turn topsy-turvy. The CW’s sudden takeover in Bristol last year saw positive results – viewership went up by over 100,000 viewers compared to what it was on the USA Network. Being the first official buy-in in NASCAR’s new media rights deal, the CW will take over season-long Xfinity Series TV broadcasts in 2025. However, it is already making a poor impression with its broadcasting duties.

The United Rentals 300 was a thrilling affair. Justin Allgaier won his second pole of the season and Austin Hill fought tooth and nail to defend his victory. After Hill experienced mechanical issues, his Richard Childress Racing teammate Jesse Love soared to victory in the end. To miss this spectacular race must have been painful – and some fans did so through no fault of their own. According to NASCAR reporter Noah Lewis, The CW’s coverage had glaring issues. “Hate hearing that some folks are having problems with the CW broadcast. It seems some areas didn’t elect to broadcast the race. And now the app is apparently down? Hope they get things worked out.”

This is a depressing look for the media giant’s first points-paying NASCAR outing in 2025. Not all things are bad, though. Including the new horizontal ticker instead of a vertical pylon to track the movement of a race revamped the graphics package and earned positive reactions. The CW President of Entertainment Brad Schwartz outlined its benefits. “If you have an HD and wide-screen, why are you putting a pylon down the side and squeezing it into a square box? Let’s use the panoramic and entire width of your screen to show the race, and put all the information that was on the pylon onto the bumper.”

However, people are nevertheless tired of shelling out more money every passing year.

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Frustrated with the endless subscriptions

Diehard fans know what it was like in the golden era. In the early 2000s, NASCAR was at its peak of popularity. That was because fans were accustomed to watching races mostly on free, over-the-air broadcast channels like FOX. When NASCAR signed an eight-year deal with ESPN in 2007, the sport accordingly faced a huge backlash. The audience was again frustrated when the sport’s executives signed another 10-year deal with FOX and NBC to air races on networks FS1 and NBCSN. And now we are witnessing yet another major media shift, as three major media partners will showcase the 2025 season.

The Athletic recently conducted a survey of 4,538 NASCAR fans about what they think about the sport’s changing media landscape. The constant shift from one network to another and being compelled to buy new subscriptions has made a fan weary. They said, “It’s frustrating that I became a NASCAR fan through watching it on TV and for the longest time it was usually available on free TV. Each year, it gets more expensive to enjoy from home. When they shifted to cable, I stopped watching for a long time. I have several friends who are no longer fans because they choose not to pay for cable. I’m afraid the push to streaming will only make matters worse.”

Evidently, NASCAR’s new media deal has got off on the wrong foot with fans. Unless The CW rectifies its technical issues before the next race weekend, more backlash will follow.