NASCAR starts its playoffs this coming weekend. The traditional report card — TV viewership — has the Cup Series at around 2.6 million viewers, which is on par with last season and a number that many properties would love to get to (not to mention the 8% growth among adults 18-24). Plus, the O’Reilly Auto Parts Series is up 5% and the Craftsman Truck Series is up 9%.

On social media, total post views on Cup race days are up 43.1% from last year, with 1.94 billion impressions (+31% vs. 2025) and 70 million engagements (+5.4% vs. 2025).

While NASCAR is happy with its TV partners, who are paying a combined $7.7 billion in deals that run through 2031, the sanctioning body has moved beyond relying on TV races to find new audiences. There has been heavy investment in FAST channel content, documentaries, digital and social media efforts, video gaming and maybe a small project coming with Tom Cruise.

“We’re probably diversifying our portfolio more than we ever have before,” said Tim Clark, NASCAR’s EVP and chief brand officer. “The way we’re going to grow and evolve this sport is by taking a less selfish view of what fandom means.

“Maybe that means that they follow us on social. Maybe it means they buy the NASCAR 25 game. Maybe it means that they buy merch. Maybe it means they follow us on social. Maybe it means they do all of those things. But I think we’re a little bit more comfortable than we have been traditionally of meeting fans where they are.”

Game on

As Clark puts it, video games are the “tip of the spear in terms of a youth marketing strategy” for the sport. NASCAR not only has an eponymous game from iRacing Studios — which is the sport’s best-selling game in a decade — but it also licenses its marks to games like Microsoft’s Forza Motorsport and Epic Games’ Rocket League and Fortnite. Esports remain a growth area as well, as the eNASCAR Coca-Cola iRacing Series viewership has grown more than 18% from last year.

NASCAR World on Roblox has reached 180 million visits in 2026, and more than 60% of NASCAR World users are under the age of 18. The Roblox effort is also exposing NASCAR to new global audiences, as 80% of visitors reside outside North America.

“It’s easy to talk about an international strategy in terms of where are we going to put races, and obviously that’s important to us,” Clark said, “but the way that we’re going to reach a younger audience and reach an international audience initially is going to be through things like gaming.”

I wanna go FAST

Clark admits talk about FAST channels isn’t sexy, but that’s where many digital eyeballs are these days. The NASCAR Channel, which is the sport’s 24/7 FAST platform, launched at the start of 2025 and is on Tubi, Prime Video, Roku Channel and Xumo Play, among other platforms. Beyond archival content, NASCAR has also invested in original programming for the channel, and it has even added live events that have been on FloRacing.

“Last year, we were blown away by the first full year that we had on the FAST platform, and just when we thought that audience and those consumption rates couldn’t continue to grow at the rate they were, they somehow still are — to the point where we’re now making content specifically for that platform,” Clark said.

A screen near you

NASCAR is also a sport less driven by highlights compared to stick-and-ball competitors, and that has led to more spending to tell deep stories around the racing property and its personalities. Clark said NASCAR is “very pleased” with the move of the “Full Speed” docuseries from Netflix to Prime Video this season, which came on the heels of a successful “Earnhardt” doc on Prime last year.

“There are still good stories to tell,” he said. “We just have to be really selective on not wearing out fans in terms of telling the stories from our 78-year history as much as we are focusing on the current characters. But navigating the original space and certainly the sports documentary space right now — it’s tricky. But I think we put the right pieces and parts in place to have some success there.”

The next big project for NASCAR? The “Days of Thunder” sequel set for 2028. Tom Cruise rolled out the formal announcement on social media over the weekend (reports had him crashing the drivers’ meeting Saturday), and Clark said the reception has been “overwhelmingly positive.”

“Entertainment projects are a really powerful front door to the sport,” Clark said. “We’ll be great partners, we’ll provide great access, we’ll be hyperfocused on authenticity. We’ll look to get our drivers and our partners and our teams involved in that project.”