NASCAR’s Biggest Problem

nascar has a problem a big problem and no it isn't anything directly that we see on a week-to-week basis and if you looked at how nascar's fair with their viewership compared to other sports during the coveted pandemic you'd probably be wondering even more what i'm talking about nascar actually has a slight increase in comparable viewership this summer while leagues like the nba and mlb have gone woke and went broke and lost viewership nascar has actually led a majority of the summer is the most watched sports league so what's the problem well when you look at many of the reports of nascar's ratings you'll see that even the nba with floundering ratings has double the viewership in the 18 to 49 demographic that nascar has this is the major demographic that everyone is after sports leagues tv shows even hallmark movies everybody is looking to get this demographic it is the prime demographic this is rough for nascar's future because it means that younger fans still are not connecting with the sport now nascar peaked between 2004 and 2006 with their tv audience being the highest it ever been but ever since it has dwindled from 2006 to 2016 the average age of a nascar fan went from 49 to 58 according to sports business journal so in 10 years the average age rose by nine years so nascar has for the most part kept its older base while losing both its former younger base and failing to garner a new one at the moment nascar can live off of the older audience but obviously this cannot last forever and if nascar doesn't sharply change this trend then they very well may be seeing their audience tank in numbers soon not trying to be too morbid here but the average life expectancy in the us is 78 and nascar is much closer to that number with average fan age than most other major sports leagues i mean at least we're ahead of the pga and mlb but it's not really saying much but this all compounds with the fact that sports in general have actually started to trend downwards in popularity in the us as members of gen z have grown up in the age of video games and youtube this starkly contrasts the current fan base is more familiar with myspace and facebook than they are with twitter so nascar needs to figure out how to negotiate this ever-changing climate firstly nascar needs to fully embrace the internet age they are moving towards this with their social media presence being pretty good and their tac is a damn beauty but that's a given we all know that the internet is king with the future what isn't as clear is sports popularity in this era a trend that's been growing in the sports world that have noticed is that while ratings go down in general big events still are consistently highly watched nfl ratings have been down yet the super bowl isn't same with the nba finals world series and stanley cup if this becomes a new norm then nascar needs to look at how to optimize crown jewels and big races like the talladega races bristol night race championship races and of course the daytona 500. i mean think for a moment about horse racing what's the only horse race that anyone ever thinks summer knows of if you know one the kentucky derby that's how outsiders often see nascar with the daytona 500 but there's something far different about nascar that separates it from the younger audience it's trying to get culture nascar culture is just inherently different from most of gen z's first off car culture is something that is not dead like a lot of people say but it has changed from the car culture that built up nascar younger fans nowadays aren't as into just big american-made power and muscle cars as they were when nascar was getting popular they're more than the speed and flash nascar did try to address this in the 2020 all-star race with their half-assed attempt to underglow but nascar is going to need to find out how to balance this old and new audience on this because they can't just sacrifice their current audience to try and get a new one they've been trying to do that for 15 years and obviously it hasn't worked also they need to continue to address the nascar stereotype and break through to the overall culture let's be honest there's a stereotype around nascar fans this is going to take decades to get past if they ever can get past it and they're gonna have to address it carefully just look at how the confederate flag ban went over while very popular with the young fans it didn't go over with nascar's core base this is a tightrope that i don't envy nascar leadership on in any way now the last one to address is the younger generation's relatively shorter attention spans due to social media many need instant gratification on their entertainment look at the two races that we most see as the greatest ever the 2003 carolina dodge dealers 400 and the 1992 hooters 500 these races are three to four hours long but we only focus on a few little segments whether it's good moments crashes or amazing finishes most newer fans are going to be brought in by these moments and are going to be looking for them this is why super speedways are usually the most popular form of racing in nascar when it comes to the general audience this reasoning is also why nascar has changed the playoffs and stage racing so they're moving towards alleviating this blind spot towards new fans but it is alienating a lot of older fans the big hurdle with this will be keeping these older fans on board and if you want to see how not to do this then look at the brian france era i'm going to be honest here i don't have any quick fixes that are going to make this problem just disappear for nascar because i don't want to alienate the old base the old base is what got us here they deserve our respect if it wasn't for them we wouldn't have nascar on tv the way it is every sunday so i don't really have anything that i can say is going to be a fix for everyone obviously you can't make everyone happy but you gotta get this younger viewership and with this i want to pass it on to you how do you think nascar should solve this big problem with demographics let me know down in the comments below and while you're at it leave a like on this video and subscribe to my channel for more great nascar content and until next time have a good one [Music] um

Channel: The Iceberg

Views: 66,136

Keywords: nascar, biggest, problem, nascar highlights, nascar race, nascar on fox, nascar fans, confederate flag, the iceberg nascar, the iceberg, nascar's biggest problem, daytona, talladega, auto club, auto club speedway, nba, mlb, lebron james, bristol, daytona 500, playoffs, nascar playoffs, championship, winning, sport, sports, motorsport, motorsorts, racing, nascar racing, entertainment, change, britsol, bristol night race, crash, spin, wreck, autos, cars, auto racing

Id: aKoKYgeYADg

Length: 6min 42sec (402 seconds)

Published: Tue Sep 08 2020