• 13 of 18 Cup Series races have recorded YoY viewership decreases in 2025
  • Miami is only F1 race to not record a YoY viewership increase in the US this season

The Nascar Cup Series averaged 1.61 million viewers at Atlanta Motor Speedway for its debut on Warner Bros Discovery (WBD) owned TNT Sports in the US.

The inaugural race of Nascar’s In-Season Tournament took place on a Saturday night, the first Cup Series race to do so since Bristol in 2024. In comparison, that event averaged 1.86 million viewers on USA Network, but Bristol has struggled to generate strong viewership in its playoff slot since 2020.

A fairer comparison would be last year’s race at New Hampshire, also the 18th race of the season. That race averaged 1.88 million viewers on USA Network, so Atlanta has only recorded a 14.5 per cent drop in viewership. Atlanta also suffered a mid-race delay due to inclement weather, although racing paused for only 30 minutes.

According to a Nascar statement, viewership fell 16 per cent during the rain delay. In addition, any viewership via WBDs Max streaming platform is not included in the final results as it is not Nielsen-rated.

That said, an average of 1.61 million viewers is the lowest mark of the season so far, which won’t be how TNT wanted its new broadcast relationship with Nascar to begin.

Nascar has now seen year-over-year (YoY) viewership decreases in 13 races this year.

On the whole, Nascar is averaging 2.88 million viewers through 18 regular season races this season.

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Meanwhile, Formula One averaged 1.1 million viewers for last weekend’s Austrian Grand Prix on ESPN, marking another impressive result for the series in the US.

This means that Miami is currently the only race this season to not see a YoY viewership increase in the US compared to the previous year’s Grand Prix. Austria is also now the sixth race of 2025 to set an event record for viewership on ESPN.

Notably, the race averaged 436,000 viewers in the 18 to 49 demographic, which brings the season average in this age range to 501,000 viewers. This is an increase of 21 per cent over the full 2024 season average.

Interestingly, this trails the average of 601,000 viewers that Nascar achieved in the 18 to 49 demographic across its five-race run on Amazon Prime Video.

Formula One is now averaging 1.38 million viewers on ESPN after 11 races, up on the 1.24 million viewers at the same point last season.