- YTD Cup Series viewership is 4.06m in 2025 compared to 4.04m in 2024
- F1 smashes previous Australian GP viewership record of 659k in 2019
- Nascar’s second-tier Xfinity Series also averages 1.1m viewers
- MotoGP averages 100k viewers for Argentina GP on FS2
The Nascar Cup Series race in Las Vegas averaged 3.01 million viewers on FS1, which was the series’ most-watched race on cable since Darlington in 2021.
This represents back-to-back record audiences on cable after the previous event at Phoenix averaged 2.82 million viewers.
Viewership is down 21 per cent year-over-year (YoY) on last year’s race at Bristol, though that event aired on network television on Fox. The 2024 race in Las Vegas, which took place two races earlier, averaged an audience of 4.36 million but also aired on Fox.
While this is a strong run of viewership for Nascar, the sheer number of races on cable in this first segment of the season means the overall audience will decline compared to 2024. Three consecutive races have now suffered a viewership decrease compared to last year.
Year-to-date viewership is currently consistent, though, as 4.06 million people have watched the season thus far through six races compared to 4.04 million in 2024.
Excluding the preseason Clash event, which did not achieve representative viewership in 2024 due to weather delays, outlines the downward trajectory of Nascar’s audience (4.26 million viewers in 2025 versus 4.54 million in 2024) which will become more obvious further into the season
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Meanwhile, the Formula One season got off to a promising start in the US with an average of 1.1 million viewers for the Australian Grand Prix on ESPN.
This was slightly down on last year’s season-opening race in Bahrain (1.12 million viewers), but last weekend’s race started at 12:00am ET with the chequered flag flying just under two hours later. The 2024 Bahrain race was a more digestible Saturday morning start in the US.
However, this is an event record for the Australian Grand Prix in the US, smashing the previous benchmark of 659,000 viewers in 2019. Last year’s race, which aired on ESPN2, averaged 541,000 viewers.
For context on where Formula One currently stands in the hierarchy of motorsport series in the US, Nascar’s second-tier Xfinity Series also averaged 1.1 million viewers on The CW. These races, though, are aired at times catered to the American market.
Elsewhere, MotoGP’s second race of the season in Argentina averaged 100,000 viewers on FS2, making it the most-watched broadcast of the weekend on the channel.
The race peaked at 123,000 viewers and was the fifth most-viewed broadcast on FS2 this year.
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