TV News: Weekly USA Motorsports TV Viewership/TV Ratings

More details for the Formula 1 TV viewership at the Spanish GP in Barcelona and the NASCAR Cup race in Nashville.

Formula 1

ESPN’s live telecast of the Formula 1 Spanish Grand Prix on Sunday, June 1, averaged 1.2 million viewers (up 9% from 1.1M in 2024), the largest audience ever for the event on U.S. television. The audience peaked at 1.3 million in the 10:15-10:30 a.m. ET quarter hour.

The race also averaged 512,000 viewers in the all-important Persons ages 18-49 demographic, which is all advertisers really care about.

Formula 1 qualifying on Saturday, May 31, at 10 a.m. ET on ESPN2 averaged 627,000 viewers.

Of the nine F1 races held so far this season, all but one (Miami) have seen year-over-year viewership increases and four of the nine (Australia, China, Monaco and Spain) scored event record audiences. The audience for the Monaco Grand Prix was the third-largest live audience ever for a Formula 1 race on U.S. television.

Across ESPN, ESPN2 and ABC, F1 races are averaging 1.3 million viewers in the USA (80 million worldwide), up four percent over the season-to-date average for the 2024 season and up 15 percent over the full 2024 season average.

In the younger demographic of Persons ages 18-49, races are averaging 498,000 viewers in the USA (40 million worldwide), up 10 percent over the 2024 season to date average and up 21 percent over the full 2024 season average.

NASCAR

PrimeVideo got a 1.01 rating and 2.06 million viewers for Sunday’s NASCAR Cup Series Cracker Barrel 400 at Nashville, down 36.4% from last year’s race that got 3.24 million on
NBC.

June 3, 2025

TV Viewership numbers from last weekend’s major motorsports events – Formula in Barcelona, IndyCar in Detroit and NASCAR in Nashville.

Formula 1

Another event TV viewership record for F1 on ESPN! The Spanish GP averaged 1.2M viewers (1.3M peak)

It was the largest U.S. TV audience EVER for this event

The broadcast drew 512K avg. TV viewers in all important 18-49 age group

Next up, the Canadian GP on June 15 at 2p ET on ABC

IndyCar

Fox drew 1.062M TV viewers for the Detroit GP, up 75% from 608K viewers in 2024 on the Fake News NBC owned USA Network.

It was the highest TV viewership for the Detroit GP since 2021. The race peaked at 1.201M viewers from 2:30-2:45 PM ET

Through the first 7 races of 2025, IndyCar on Fox averaged 2.172M viewers (includes Indy 500), up 31% from 2024 on Fake News NBC

NASCAR

The CW got 988,000 TV viewers for Saturday’s NASCAR Xfinity race at Nashville, ending the series’ streak of 13 straight events over 1 million.

The Cup race numbers on Prime Video are not out yet.