(02-04-2020 11:56 PM)Dr. Isaly von Yinzer Wrote:  What happened to NASCAR?

A few years ago, it seemed ubiquitous – like it was everywhere. Even for someone like me, who never really followed it, I knew who Jeff Gordon and Tony Stewart and Dale Earnhardt Jr. and (the other) Jimmy Johnson were.

Now, I have no idea who’s considered the good drivers and I have no idea who is winning the Winston Cup circuit or even who has won it in the past few years? It just seems like it’s a lot less present in the culture than it used to be. Is that fair? If so, why is that the case?

Anecdotally, NASCAR seems to have very few fans amongst Millennials and the demographics of NASCAR’s other fans likely aren’t as attractive (generally older, lower income, more rural, etc.). It would be interesting to see if the data backs up that anecdotal observation.

Other sports that have trouble drawing Millennials still have other attractive demos to rely upon. Baseball still is a big draw in several key urban markets (such as New York, Chicago and Boston), while golf and tennis have very high income viewers. NASCAR doesn’t have that to fall back on, so sports networks would rather spend more time to talk more about the NFL and NBA (which have growing and attractive demographics) compared to spending much time on NASCAR.