NASCAR gives all its fans thrills – but seeking them may have become harder in recent days. Since 2025, people have scratched their heads over which channel their favorite race may be airing on. Ranging from broadcast television on FOX Sports to online streaming on Amazon Prime, fans got an eclectic experience. However, it was also a cumbersome experience – that the sport’s chief could not help admit.

NASCAR President acknowledges the failures

“As we looked toward the latter half of the season, we felt a tail-off. We put so much focus on the beginning of the season and that launch with Amazon, we felt a little bit of the pain when we went TNT, NBC, USA,” Steve O’Donnell, President of NASCAR, said on ‘The Varsity’ podcast. “And I think one of the lessons we learned is that focus, kind of, second half of the season, we kind of really gotta, ‘Let’s go.’”

As a culmination of the $7.7 billion media rights deal signed in late 2023, five broadcast partners joined the NASCAR Cup Series in 2025. Fox, Prime Video, TNT Sports, NBC, Versant, and The CW came on board. Starting from 2026, Versant’s spinoff from NBC will expand that group to 6. But the stats from last year paint a depressing picture ahead of the main season.

In 2025, TNT averaged just 2.1 million viewers across five races, clocking in slightly below Prime Video’s average of 2.16 million viewers. Both broadcasters could not catch up with FS1’s eight-race slate, which averaged 2.5 million viewers per race. And Steve O’Donnell could not help but acknowledge these lowly numbers.

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“You’ve got this portion of the season where you gotta turn to fans, you gotta tell them exactly where the race is and pound that home every single day and see what happens this year,” the sport’s president continued, enlightening us about the game plan for 2026.

O’Donnell continued, “It’s going to be a big focus for us. If you see, kind of, that falloff, we’re going to continue to make efforts, because we need Turner to succeed, we need [USA Sports president] Matt Hong and Versant and his team to succeed. They’ve got a big bet on us, and we’ve got a big bet on them to make sure we carry this thing through all the way to Miami and the championship.”

FOX and FS1 will handle the first few races of the season before Amazon Prime takes over the Coca-Cola 600 for another 5-race spectacle in May. Prime’s reception was notably remarkable in 2025.

While building on last year’s failures, NASCAR is also paving new paths for 2026.

Going international for a prestigious race

Improving the viewership among fans at home base is crucial. But at the same time, NASCAR is not failing to dream big. The 68th running of the Daytona 500 had a unique sheen – it was broadcast to fans in more than 185 countries and territories in 23 languages, reaching over 550 million households worldwide.

Canada is a key market, with CTV broadcasting the prestigious Cup Series race. Then, Mexico received FOX coverage of not only the Cup Series, but also the O’Reilly Auto Parts and Truck races. Europe and Africa were in the mix, highlighted by long-term partnerships with Premier Sports, Ziggo, Mediawan, and others. In Asia, NASCAR renewed with Abema in Japan, entered year two of its partnership with Coupang in Korea, and began a new pan-regional deal with SPOTV covering Southeast Asia.

“The Daytona 500 serves as a powerful global launch point for the entire NASCAR season,” said Nick Skipper, NASCAR Managing Director, Media Strategy. “Through strategic partnerships with leading broadcasters and platforms around the world, we’re expanding NASCAR’s international footprint and creating meaningful, year-round value for our media partners while delivering consistent, high-quality coverage of our sport to fans worldwide.”

Clearly, NASCAR’s vision is hardly narrow. Let’s wait and see if fans can handle the broadcasting troubles better this year.