08/06/2025
MCT Editorial: NASCAR’s Identity Crisis – And Why It Lost Its Soul
NASCAR is now scrambling to win back the fans it drove away. Marketing teams and consultants are being hired to figure out what went wrong.
Here’s a clue: NASCAR stopped being NASCAR.
Over the past 30 years, the sport traded in its gritty, blue-collar roots for polished prodigies raised in simulators and groomed since age five. The drivers fans used to see themselves in, were guys like Dick Trickle. Older guys lighting a cigarette before a race were replaced by corporate-safe teenagers with media training. No grit. No edge. Just PR-approved robots in fire suits.
The tracks are Sanitized. The cars are Identical. How boring. Everything made “equal” and “easier” in the name of no way to get advantages. But in racing, easier doesn’t mean better. NASCAR’s magic was in the chaos, imperfect tracks, unpredictable cars, and drivers who made mistakes. That’s where the drama lived.
Then came the political correctness. The real tipping point might’ve been Tony Stewart. Once he left, so did the last breath of authenticity. Now drivers are afraid to speak their minds, afraid to upset sponsors, and forced to apologize for anything off-script. That’s not racing. That’s brand management. Then they got into identity politics and that was the last straw for a lot of old fans, who never thought about identity politics when it came to racing.
You know it’s bad when grassroots Saturday night racers, the very backbone of this sport, can’t even sit through or even watch a Cup race. My dad use to LOVE to get up on Sunday and watch the Cup races after a night of racing. He saw himself in those drivers. Most drivers now feel disconnected with NASCAR. If you’ve lost them, it’s not just a marketing problem. It’s really a cultural collapse.
