William Byron is all set for the upcoming battle. He punched his ticket to the 2025 NASCAR Cup Series Championship 4. And behind this latest success lies not only his season’s three trophies, but a glittering background. Byron launched his career in iRacing, a simulated racing game, and so did Craftsman Truck Series star Rajah Caruth. With two superstars boasting unconventional backgrounds, fans were excited to watch a unique NASCAR 25 event.

Drivers and fans alike are almost entirely occupied with the championship narratives this week. All three NASCAR national series are heading to Phoenix Raceway, which will crown the lucky champions. Meanwhile, the series wanted fans to experience a refreshing digital gaming event – but unfortunately, fans were left disappointed.

Joining the streamer-racer worlds for NASCAR 25

The gaming world today is dominated by influential streamers and gaming personalities. And fans who follow both NASCAR on the racetrack and on digital platforms got a treat. On October 28th, the NASCAR 25 Creator Series debuted, a first-of-its-kind motorsports competitive streaming series. And it featured 8 popular streamers who collectively reach tens of millions of fans across Twitch, YouTube, TikTok, and Instagram. They included TimTheTatman, CouRageJD, YourRAGE, Emiru, ExtraEmily, Agent00, RayAsianBoy, and StableRonaldo.

With star-studded NASCAR drivers as guests – like Carson Hocevar, Christopher Bell, Ryan Blaney, and others – fans anticipated a fun event. However, things apparently did not go according to plan. A NASCAR fan spilled the beans on a disastrous fallout: “Somehow, they couldn’t get a private lobby set up, and all the streamers just went into random online lobbies. Timthetatman joined a 100% race at Daytona by mistake, and everyone else was in separate lobbies for the entire event, not once racing against each other.”

The main objective of this streaming event was to “better connect with younger audiences online.” Not only was that objective a distant possibility, but fans were also left utterly disappointed. The Reddit user continued, “I’m kinda shocked that they didn’t rehearse this ahead of time to solve these issues, and when they abruptly ended the stream, the chat became livid. I was really hoping that this would lead more people to the sport, but I feel like it’s done more damage then good so far.”

This was a collaboration between NASCAR and Night, a next-gen media and entertainment company supporting the careers and business ventures of the world’s top creators and artists. It marks the latest effort by NASCAR in the gaming space, where its audience continues to grow. For example, NASCAR World in Driving Empire on Roblox has generated more than 7 million hours of engagement. Then, the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series grew its viewership by 35% YoY.

However, the NASCAR 25 Creator Series started on a bad note. And fans did not mince their words about the chaotic fallout.

NASCAR fans squint their eyebrows

Another week, another reason for fans to be mad at NASCAR. And a main reason for frustration in the Creator Series was Carson Hocevar’s shifty presence. The Cup Series sophomore driver already has a notorious reputation, and he happened to upset fans yet again. Alongside him was Todd Gilliland, who also appeared to be a little technically handicapped. Somebody wrote, “Carson Hocevar literally just left during the event and never came back…Also Todd Gilliland doesnt know how to accept invites on ps5 I guess lol.”

Mamba Smith, who led the broadcast and hosted every race from the main NASCAR channel, also messed up. Another fan wrote, “Mamba didn’t even notice he left. Like ten minutes after Carson left, Mamba tried asking him something and got zero response. Gilliland had to fill Mamba in on the fact that Carson dipped out.” The FOX Sports broadcaster had been under fire recently for supporting the playoff format. So another fan took a jibe at him: “Dw, Mamba will likely find a way to bend this whole fiasco into a good thing.”

Somebody else made a hilarious allusion to a family event. They drew a parallel between the humble game in a warm household to NASCAR’s multi-billion dollar investment. “I had a similar problem when I tried to organize a family among us game during covid. I’m not a 7 billion dollar company though so….” Another fan hoped against hope that the cool collaboration with gaming influencers could work out in the future. They wrote, “Damn I was hopeful there’d be a little better planning going into this. A great idea as the game really is fun.”

Evidently, NASCAR’s streaming event struck a dismal note among fans. Let’s wait and see if the sanctioning body can work on the technical glitches in the next endeavor.