Hi. I would like to know if they are any Americans who like to watch motorsports such as Formula 1, NASCAR or even Indycar or 24 hours of Le Mans. I mostly watch F1 and my favorite drivers atm are Alonso and Verstappen. What about you guys?

36 comments

  1. Yeah, there are Americans who are into that stuff. It seems like a bit of a niche sport to me, but I live near a race track (I think it’s part of the Winston Cup, although I’m not totally sure what that means in terms of the cars that use it) and whenever there’s a race traffic is a shitshow. So people are going.

    Edit: I think there is an increase in interest because there was a Netflix show about Formula 1. I have seen people talking about racing recently that I had never seen talk about it in the past.

  2. Yes, many Americans watch motorsports. NASCAR is obviously the most popular here as it’s native to the US and there are dozens of large tracks that sellout for races all over the country.

    It’s a niche sport though, it doesn’t have the same interest level as the 4 major pro sports, college football, or college basketball.

    We’re a big enough country that millions of people can be fans of something without it being close to a majority of people holding interest or it being important to our overall culture.

  3. I know some people do, and there were racetracks not far from where I grew up, but sorry, it’s just not for me.

  5. No, I don’t watch motorsports. I’m weird for an American because I don’t watch any sports at all.

  6. I don’t watch it. That said, I did go to a NASCAR race (work thing with customers) and that is pretty wild in person. Had a lot of fun. Probably won’t ever go to another one but it was a really cool experience.

  8. I used to live in a city that held an annual event, and I’d go down to watch it live in person, since it was free if you knew the good lookout spots.

    I don’t follow the scene though. But man, those suckers can move.

  9. NASCAR is absolutely huge in the South. I lived in a town not far from Daytona for college and it would get soooo busy around the day of the 500. A friend of mine worked as a waiter in a Cracker Barrel near the Daytona Speedway (absolutely the sort of place that would be frequented by NASCAR fans) and she absolutely hated it. Formula 1 is less popular here but the race they did in Chicago was really well received, I could see it growing. I think people liked watching super poweful racecars try to navigate the streets they drive around.

    Personally I find NASCAR pretty boring but I do like F1.

  10. I watch mostly NASCAR and Indycar. Sometimes I’ll wake up a little earlier and catch the F1 race, but it’s definitely the lowest priority for me.

    That being said, memorial day sunday is without a doubt the best day in all of motorsports for me. Monaco GP in the morning, Indianapolis 500 in the afternoon, and the Coca-cola 600 in the evening. Fucking motorsports christmas.

    e:just to give you an idea about popularity – the formula1 subreddit has about 3 million people, the nascar subreddit has about 1 million, and the indycar subreddit has about 250k.

  11. Yes, all the time. I can’t stand F1 though because it’s probably the least exciting racing out there to me. I don’t even need to watch the race because I pretty much know Red Bull is going to win and Ferrari is going to do something stupid.

    I mostly like GT style racing and I used to love the WRC, but it’s kind of eh now. Rally Raid like Dakar is pretty cool though and I like watching it when I can. American Rally is good fun to watch as well.

  13. I love LeMans and 24hrs of Daytona and IMSA as a whole to a lesser extent. Especially the GT classes.

    I used to absolutely love BTCC, but they make it so hard to watch in the states that I’ve basically given up.

    I do watch a ton of gearhead content on Motortrend and youtube too. Some foreign and some domestic.

  14. Nope. Zero interest in any motorsport. Couldn’t pay me enough money to go anywhere near Talladega on a race weekend.

  15. I used to. NASCAR changed and I lost interest in the early 2000’s. My favorite drivers all retired too.

  17. A fair number of people do. I still don’t quite get why the Vegas F1 race starts at 10pm pacific time.

  18. Avid F1 and MotoGP for years. Sometimes WSBK. For F1, cheer on Ferrari and ex-Ferrari drivers. MotoGP, Yamaha. Pain? You bet. Lots of it.

  19. I don’t like to watch motorsports, except for in person. This upcoming weekend is the first time in many years that I won’t be present at Petit le Mans at Road Atlanta.

  21. I like formula 1 but I don’t care a thing about NASCAR. The track is boring as hell. At least with formula, you get curves and corners.

  22. Yes!!!! I watch F1 mainly, but also sometimes indycar (I’m a big McLaren fan!) I also love to watch the Goodwood Festival of Speed and Revival when they’re on each year.

  23. I’m a big motorsports fan and also live an hour’s drive away from Watkins Glen International so I go there in person every year at a minimum for the six hour IMSA race. I have also attended the NASCAR race there as well as the IndyCar race when it was still held there (along with Pocono). I will probably attend the 12 Hours of Sebring next year or in 2025 as well.

    Grew up with NASCAR and IndyCar but now pretty much watch IndyCar and IMSA the most. I gave up on F1 a few years back when I got bored of watching Mercedes win everything and now Red Bull.

  25. I’m a huge racing fan. I watch it all, but I especially like IndyCar and endurance/ sports car racing. NASCAR is fairly popular in certain parts of the country, F1 and IndyCar are on their way up (or back up, in IndyCar’s case), and grassroots oval racing is still going strong.

    Local short track/ dirt oval racing is a mostly US/ Canada and Aus/NZ thing that is really, really fun. Sprint cars are my favorite form of that.

    EDIT: the Indianapolis 500 is my favorite event in the world, period.

  26. I dabble, and watch major races like Daytona, Indy, 24 hours of Le Mans, a few F1’s, some world rally, Goodwood historics.

  27. I enjoy Formula 1. I do not enjoy NASCAR, although I really, really tried.

    I am from Michigan, and cars are something I have always had a big interest in, so motorsports are an easy sell to me.

    I love Alonso. But Verstappen can go jump in the first available lake.

  30. I watch NASCAR occasionally while it’s on, and I actually watched LeMans this year, although I’d never watched it before. I also flew out to Reno to watch the air races there last month, and technically that’s also a motorsport.

    I have watched a few F1 races but it seems incredibly uninteresting given that it’s just the same guy winning every week. If they could get the cars to be a little more equal that would go a long way to improving the series IMO.

  33. F1. Got into it from the Netflix doc series Drive to Survive. I just follow online though, the races are just ok to watch.

  34. I watch the WRC. Don’t know much about rules or scoring The raw footage the WRC posts after every event is great.

  35. Yep. I grew up watching NASCAR, but I also follow F1, IMSA, Indycar, some WEC, Asphalt late model, dirt late model, dirt sprint, and occasionally V8 Supercars.

    So yeah. Most of my life outside of work is consumed by watching Motorsports.

  36. I have never been into sports for my whole life, but I just got into Formula 1 this year. It’s pretty entertaining!

Leave a Reply
You May Also Like