NASCAR and the younger crowd

BenzTech99

BenzTech99

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How will NASCAR attract the younger crowd? Most of the people my age (mid 20s) dont watch NASCAR because ofcourse their excuse is that its just "cars going around in circles." We all know theres alot more too it, but that opinion is the status quo with my generation. I feel they (NASCAR) can do it with more road course racing on the schedule. Thoughts?

P.S. How bout that 99!? :)
 
Road courses sure aren't going to do it. We all say we like them but nobody's watching them. Viewership was way down for last weeks race. I wish I had the answer.
 
Most of the people I talk to my age dont even know that Nascar goes on road courses. When I say "hey, you should watch the race at sonoma this weekend" theyre like "huh? I thought Nascar only went in circles?" It worrys me that Nascar has a dying fan base (no pun intended).
 
StandOnIt said:
where is that posted? I have been looking for that
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What that we all say we love road courses? I know I do! And not just because Carl won... Or the viewership was down? Look at the numbers, viewership has been down for just about every race this season, not just Sonoma. I mean honestly, anyone that says the racing isnt great needs to have their head checked. Also, I really enjoy seeing people like AJ and Marcos have a shot to win, rather than just the regulars every week.
 
Three things off the top of my head that would help tremendously:
1) Drivers with personalities - rivalries, fights, controversy etc. (Would take dramatic sponsor buy in)
2) Allow the scanning and race view type stuff for free. Promote the digital experience, and make the digital experience accessible.
3) Wifi at tracks.
 
I'm not really sure of how the culture is in the south, but it does seem to be difficult to find young NASCAR fans here in the north. I've been able to get a few of my friends who are F1 fans to watch some NASCAR races, but they don't seem to be too interested. As long as NASCAR continues to be stereotyped as the sport for stupid, drunk, poor hillbillies who like to watch cars go round 'n' round for hours, it will have a hard time expanding, at least with the kinds of people I tend to hang around.
 
DSquad48 said:
I'm not really sure of how the culture is in the south, but it does seem to be difficult to find young NASCAR fans here in the north. I've been able to get a few of my friends who are F1 fans to watch some NASCAR races, but they don't seem to be too interested. As long as NASCAR continues to be stereotyped as the sport for stupid, drunk, poor hillbillies who like to watch cars go round 'n' round for hours, it will have a hard time expanding, at least with the kinds of people I tend to hang around.
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You need new friends. ;)
 
DSquad48 said:
I'm not really sure of how the culture is in the south, but it does seem to be difficult to find young NASCAR fans here in the north. I've been able to get a few of my friends who are F1 fans to watch some NASCAR races, but they don't seem to be too interested. As long as NASCAR continues to be stereotyped as the sport for stupid, drunk, poor hillbillies who like to watch cars go round 'n' round for hours, it will have a hard time expanding, at least with the kinds of people I tend to hang around.
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Im from New England and I totally feel your pain. However its not much better in Florida. I just cant understand why some people I know will get up at 3am to watch F1 and see 1 lead change the entire race, but they wont watch Nascar on a Sunday afternoon. F1 cars are amazing, no doubt about it, but the racing in Nascar is far superior IMHO.
 
DSquad48 said:
I'm not really sure of how the culture is in the south, but it does seem to be difficult to find young NASCAR fans here in the north. I've been able to get a few of my friends who are F1 fans to watch some NASCAR races, but they don't seem to be too interested. As long as NASCAR continues to be stereotyped as the sport for stupid, drunk, poor hillbillies who like to watch cars go round 'n' round for hours, it will have a hard time expanding, at least with the kinds of people I tend to hang around.
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Aint much different down here. Always believed you gotta grow up watching the races to be a weekend to weekend fan. Hard to convert people to go from fast paced stick n ball sports to the long n drawn out nascar atmosphere.
 
Allenbaba said:
Three things off the top of my head that would help tremendously:
1) Drivers with personalities - rivalries, fights, controversy etc. (Would take dramatic sponsor buy in)
2) Allow the scanning and race view type stuff for free. Promote the digital experience, and make the digital experience accessible.
3) Wifi at tracks.
Click to expand...

Im not convinced that more fighting will do it. How often do you hear about fights after F1 races? The other two ideas are good though.
 
I'm 24 and know exactly what you mean. I think most people around our age think of NASCAR as being a redneck, hillbilly sport with a bunch of uneducated simple people that run the sport. My gf hated NASCAR until I got her to watch the 2011 Daytona 500, now she follows it nearly as close as I do and is one of the biggest Carl Edwards fans you'll meet lol.

If more people took the time to see what really goes on during a race, it would change the way they see the sport.
 
As a someone living in the southwest,
Yup.....
 
KahneFan said:
I'm 24 and know exactly what you mean. I think most people around our age think of NASCAR as being a redneck, hillbilly sport with a bunch of uneducated simple people that run the sport. My gf hated NASCAR until I got her to watch the 2011 Daytona 500, now she follows it nearly as close as I do and is one of the biggest Carl Edwards fans you'll meet lol.

If more people took the time to see what really goes on during a race, it would change the way they see the sport.
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Couldnt agree more.
 
Fighting doesn't put the NHL on the top of the television ratings. Besides, fighting was never a a big draw to NASCAR. Anyone that thinks that it was has a skewed recollection of what NASCAR was.
 
StandOnIt said:
Michigan was 2.7 with 4.5 million watching I found that. Similar it looks like.
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So, basically, no huge influx of fans tuning in to watch the road course race which is pretty much what I was saying initially. More road courses will not turn into more fans.
 
dpkimmel2001 said:
Fighting doesn't put the NHL on the top of the television ratings. Besides, fighting was never a a big draw to NASCAR. Anyone that thinks that it was has a skewed recollection of what NASCAR was.
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This feeds into the "redneck/hillbilly/uneducated" stereotype as well.
 
Gees use your math. There are around 4 or 5 million tv sets turned on to the race...and 360 ish million people in the U.S.? there aren't going to be and haven't ever been that many fans that you are going to run into in your daily life. You want to meet fans...go to the freakin track and watch a race.
 
A lot of younger people don't even drive cars. They live in cities and ride bikes, walk or ride subways.

NASCAR needs personalities and, sorry, Clint Bowyer don't cut it for urban and suburban youths.
 
KahneFan said:
I'm 24 and know exactly what you mean. I think most people around our age think of NASCAR as being a redneck, hillbilly sport with a bunch of uneducated simple people that run the sport. My gf hated NASCAR until I got her to watch the 2011 Daytona 500, now she follows it nearly as close as I do and is one of the biggest Carl Edwards fans you'll meet lol.

If more people took the time to see what really goes on during a race, it would change the way they see the sport.
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Yup. I have friends come over to watch NFL games and I'll bounce from room to room to watch both the game & the race. Friends dont mind watching pieces of the race & they ask questions galore, but they'll never sit down to watch the whole thing.
 
StandOnIt said:
Gees use your math. There are around 4 or 5 million tv sets turned on to the race...and 360 ish million people in the U.S.? there aren't going to be and haven't ever been that many fans that you are going to run into in your daily life. You want to meet fans...go to the freakin track and watch a race.
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There are plenty of fans, but this thread was about the "younger crowd." I know lots of people that follow Nascar, but most of them are twice my age...
 
It's not just NASCAR and the younger fans, it's all forms and levels of racing having a hard time of attracting younger fans. That is one thing I harp on all the time to the tracks in my area - have things to get more kids to the track.
 
I think maybe when more young guys start to work their way to the cup series, maybe younger people will have somebody to relate to. Someone they can start to follow and continue to follow throughout their career. And they'll most likely have sponsors that will attract a younger crowd as well.
 
For one thing, who knows how to work on a car anymore? The new cars need a computer and a tech to determine a problem.

I spent many hours working with my husband on our cars, and the dirt car, years ago.
I'm doing good to know where to put in the gas and where to check the oil/transmission fluid on my 2010.
 
My father's generation was all about cars & mechanics. He'll even still watches races hoping to learn about the car, not the race itself. So I think that drew in alot of fans. Now my generation is all about technology. NASCAR doesnt exactly meet that standard.
This theory coming from Mike Helton.
 
The television package doesn't help either.

FOX is a horrendous television network as a whole with horrendous ratings. NFL gets ratings but the cross-promotion on Fox Sports is almost non-existent.

NASCAR on TNT has gotten horrendous ratings since this current package began. Only the die-hards are watching the six races on there.

ABC airs all of three races now - actually only two since several large markets don't air the Bristol race. As if people watch that network anyways. Only shows I know of people watching on there are Modern Family, Once Upon A Time and Agents of SHIELD.

ESPN isn't getting fans from other sports to try out NASCAR especially since the coverage on SportsCenter is minimal and non-existent on other ESPN programs. Even at the beginning of ESPN's tenure, SportsCenter's coverage of NASCAR consisted mostly of snide comments about the sport and snarky comments about NASCAR fans.
 
I took Auto Mech as a elective in my Jr (64)and Sr(65) HS years. Those classes along with Wood and Machine shop have been eliminate in schools for the most part.
I will excuse a 25 year old woman from changing a flat, not a 25 year old guy who says "I don't know how".
My son has a pretty good side line working on his friends and co-workers cars. Most of the guys just don't know.
 
TexasRaceLady said:
For one thing, who knows how to work on a car anymore? The new cars need a computer and a tech to determine a problem.

I spent many hours working with my husband on our cars, and the dirt car, years ago.
I'm doing good to know where to put in the gas and where to check the oil/transmission fluid on my 2010.
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I do! haha or atleast my screen name says I do...
 
AndyMarquisLive said:
Or maybe in urban and suburban areas in general which constitutes the majority of the country.
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Lived in many different urban & suburban areas & the only ppl I see riding busses, riding bikes n walking everywhere are the underprivileged. Sorry, but this time you are wrong. A majority of kids want cars to satisfy their growing independence.
 
One thing I have noticed is that attendance at short tracks is way up this year. That's either because the popularity of grassroots racing is on the rise or because traditional NASCAR fans have turned away from the major leagues because of the new playoff system. Or both.

Unfortunately, I don't see NASCAR being able to capitalize on that because talent doesn't get people in to NASCAR's upper-tiers anymore, money does.
 
BenzTech99 said:
Im from New England and I totally feel your pain. However its not much better in Florida. I just cant understand why some people I know will get up at 3am to watch F1 and see 1 lead change the entire race, but they wont watch Nascar on a Sunday afternoon. F1 cars are amazing, no doubt about it, but the racing in Nascar is far superior IMHO.
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I do enjoy F1 as well, but NASCAR is 50x more exciting than most F1 races :idunno:
 
ChexOrWrex said:
Lived in many different urban & suburban areas & the only ppl I see riding busses, riding bikes n walking everywhere are the underprivileged. Sorry, but this time you are wrong. A majority of kids want cars to satisfy their growing independence.
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The economy is PART of it. But only part. And the number of "underprivileged" Americans is skyrocketing and has been for 10 years.
 
I think around here its partially that Nascar, at a top level, isn't really accessible to most people. Most of the people around where I live don't have the means to go to a Cup race, so they miss out on the up close action. They don't get the joy of getting Richard Petty's autograph or bringing home a wrecked hood, or whatever. They didn't grow up going to local tracks and there are fewer opportunities to get into local racing, compared to say, rec baseball leagues and football (which we have an abundance of, and its crammed into all the kids' heads that they need to play to fit in). There's very little connection to the sport like it may have been in years past. The drivers are NOT anything like normal guys anymore. The cars do not look like the ones on dealers lots. And most of these people have never heard of a lot of the sponsors, and they don't buy their products (Sprint has no coverage for many miles around). Add in a LOT of competition from other entertainment sources, and it's no surprise to me at all that its declining.
 
BenzTech99 said:
Im not convinced that more fighting will do it. How often do you hear about fights after F1 races? The other two ideas are good though.
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NASCAR and F1 are different enough as brands that the two probably shouldn't be compared when it comes down to determining what does and doesn't work to attract young fans.

Fighting/tension/rivalry/storyline etc among teams and/or players are prevalent in all major US team sports (they have the luxury of geographic tensions...city vs city). And were especially prevalent in NASCAR back in the day that most older NASCAR fans remember fondly. I mean...the sport was put on the national map because of a fight! And I'm not even advocating that punches be thrown. But the sport desperately needs rivalries, tensions, wars of words etc. Drivers usually do a good job of it the second they get out of the car...but then they close their mouths for 6 straight days so as to keep the sponsor image.

What interest is there for a young kid to watch? Why would you tell them to give NASCAR a chance? If you had an audience of high school freshmen who grew up in central NJ, with very little exposure, what would you tell them?

Honestly...if I didn't know as many people as I know in the sport personally, and have business relations with the teams I do, I doubt I'd watch. I never did before. And even now I'm not glued to my TV. I find it's a "sport" with very little drama.
 
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