The Decline of NASCAR...What Happened?

I grew up in the south with several family members, particularly older ones, who were hardcore NASCAR fans. None of them watch the races anymore. The reason they gave me: "It used to be about the cars, and the people who drove them. Now it's cookie-cutter drivers taking cookie-cutter cars around cookie-cutter tracks."

When you can miss 11 races and win the championship something's wrong .

Why NASCAR declined in 1 sentence: They decided the racing wasn't good enough and decided to focus on "entertainment" and changed the rules accordingly.

I grew up in that awkward era where Nascar was REALLY popular when I was a little kid, but then completely fell into obscurity by the time I was old enough to actually understand the sport. This was very informative!

NASCAR became popular not being a traditional "stick and ball" sport, but decided to change their product to be more like "stick and ball" with standardized equipment, playoffs, ect... and people stopped watching.

“Safety is boring” -Company Man 2019

what killed the sport was when they tried to take a southern regional sport and make it mainstream. the southern fans went away and the mainstream is only short term, when the fad faded the rest of the fans went as well. nascar did just fine for all them years, why did they have to mess with it.

The biggest problem is that NASCAR keeps getting further and further away from actual stock car racing it’s impressive that guys used to go to a dealership buy a car work on it and have it going 200 mph in a couple weeks now it’s $400k cars that no ordinary person could ever get their hands on it’s just not as relatable

Remember once NASCAR got that HUGE contract the networks ruined the sport with endless commercials.

Loved NASCAR as a kid. Hate the chase, hate the gimmicks, hate the stages. Hated the Car of Tomorrow. They really blew it.

Two things killed it for me. 1, when they moved away from "stock" cars to the increasingly homogenous cars. 2, All the kindergarten playground rules .

"THE FRANCE FAMILY!" That is the reason for NASCAR decline! Stage Races? Cookie cutter tracks, Cars having to be same as a cookie cutter car, Martinsvile a DIRT TRACK? I am 69 years old, and grew up watching auto racing. And after I got married my wife and I every year went to Taladaga and watched a race in person, and if I had to work on a Sunday, the VCR was set to record and no one better tell me the outcome of the race till I watched it! In short, NASCAR was my sport, Earnhart, Elliot, Wallace, Richard Petty, real men real drivers, They The France Family, RUINED the sport! A friend I used to work with ask me last year which race we were going to go to Alabama and watch, I told him HELL NONE! HELL I DO NOT EVEN WATCH NASCAR ON TV ANY MORE! THE SPORT HAS GONE INTO THE CRAPPER!

1. Restrictor plate engines 2. Cookie cutter cars 3. Their end-of-the-year Chase point system.

Fathers start a business Son’s build the business Grandsons wreck the business

I think the biggest nail in the coffin was changing the way the championship worked. Using the chase and other playoff systems was a huge mistake. I don't understand why the driver who has the most points can't just win like every other motorsport. People got mad at dominance but, why shouldn't the best and most consistent driver just win. Especially at the end of the season when one crash can mean the end of your entire year, even if it's with some backmarker car.

I'm British, I've never even seen a race but reading the comments it obvious what the problem is! NASCAR has moved too far from it's roots. People saw it as more than just car racing, its culture. Funnily enough, some American owners of English football clubs just tried to eradicate the culture from football (you probably call it soccer) with the creation of the superleague and move to the American sports franchise model. They failed miserably and heads rolled in boardrooms right across Europe. The moral is:- They don't care about your sport, just your money!

"Driver, you can't show that type of personality or emotion! Our company logo is on your car and racing outfit!"

One morbid answer is that it got too safe, combined with poor management, retiring stars & legends, less driver personalities, the recession, & ticket prices getting higher & higher.

My son and i attended the Winston / Memorial Day race as Dale Earnhardt supporters (from Chicago and never been to a race) 20-yrs ago. Holy Cow - what a “hoot”! As we walked to enter the race every racers has his own promotional trailer hawking every kind of item. Then pre-race going to the infield to see the cars, meet the pit crew & racers still working the car - Dale Earnhardt standing around car talking to his guys - another holy cow! And that dastardly Jeff Gordon! It was a great day! Son now 40+, will never forget the excitement. I think NASCAR forgot their roots and sold out to Madison Ave. They use to be counter-culture / bad-boy / southern / kick--ass event. They weren’t a fancy event for NYC types - it represented true southern heritage! So little of that left in America!

Lost interest when they switched the points system. Personally I like when the most consistent driver for the entirety of the season gets rewarded a championship. Feels like technology kind of took over too much as well when it comes to the cars. Doesn't seem to be all about how good the driver is but how much money each team has. Hendrick for example vs the wood brothers.