A general view of racing during the NASCAR Cup Series Cook Out 400 at Richmond Raceway on August 16, 2025 in Richmond, Virginia. (Photo by Chris Graythen/Getty Images for NASCAR)
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TV News: USA Motorsports Weekend TV Viewers/TV Ratings (Update)

Posted by AR1 staff

We created a chart below that depicts the average NASCAR Cup TV viewership per year.

It shows a continuous decline and loss of popularity of the sport while F1 is gaining popularity. F1 already has double the number of 18-49-year-old TV viewers than NASCAR – the all important age group for advertisers.

August 21, 2025 

With vacation season in full swing, the only major motorsports series racing this past weekend was NASCAR at Richmond Raceway. Formula 1 and IndyCar were off this past weekend and earned no TV viewers.

The NBC owned USA Network earned a 0.75 rating and 1.4 million TV viewers for Saturday night’s NASCAR Cup Series Cook-Out 400 race at Richmond, down 36.4% from a 1.2 rating and 2.2 million TV Viewers last year. Last year’s race was run on a Sunday.

Comparing Apple to Apples, Richmond in 2021, also a Saturday night event, brought in 1.78 million viewers, meaning this year’s Saturday night race, won by Austin Dillon, was still down 21.3%.

If NASCAR TV viewership continues to plummet, we could see Formula 1 surpass it as the most watched form of motorsports in the USA.

A 0.75? 1.4 million viewers? For a NASCAR CUP race? That’s embarrassing. There’s no other way to spin it.

The average NASCAR Cup TV Viewership per year shows a continuous decline and loss of popularity of the sport
The average NASCAR Cup TV viewership per year shows a continuous decline and loss of popularity of the sport. Source: Statista and motorsport reports