As we approach the green flag on Saturday for the start of the 93rd 24 Hours of Le Mans, they may have to do it without me. Primary coverage for the U.S. will be on Max, which used to be Cinemax, and will soon be HBO Max, and I don’t have that channel, so I’m sort of at an impasse about buying more season-long television packages just to watch a few races.
The race will also air on MotorTrend TV. I need to check to see if I still have that.
My service provider has the ESPN channels packaged with a pricey sports bundle, and since I have no interest in sports beyond racing, I passed. This means that I miss the Formula 1 races, which broadcast on ESPN and ESPN 2, including this weekend’s Canadian Grand Prix.
I was down for Amazon Prime, which is presently covering NASCAR for five events, including this weekend’s rather historic NASCAR Cup race in Mexico City, because Prime has some solid non-racing programming. There was an outcry from NASCAR fans when they learned the Memorial Day weekend’s Coca-Cola 600 ran exclusively on Prime, because many of them were planning on following NASCAR racer Kyle Larson’s second, and likely last, attempt to do the double, racing at Indy and then at Charlotte. That fizzled, but it had plenty of fans hustling to sign up for Prime’s free 30-day trial. Even without Prime TV, I think the service is worth it just for buying things from Amazon, which we do. A lot. Too much.
After Prime, NASCAR moves to TNT (which I’m pretty sure I have) starting on June 28 from EchoPark Speedway, which used to be Atlanta Motor Speedway.
This all began a long time ago, when ESPN began airing NASCAR races in 1981. The main network and its little sister, ESPN 2, were looking at ways to attract new viewers to its stations. It worked; I recall signing up with ESPN for just that reason. I also recall that NASCAR fans were angry to have to pay for races, which at that point was a new concept.
Then just two years old, ESPN became a solid partner with NASCAR, which lasted through 2014: Many of us thought that ESPN would always be the NASCAR channel, but that was not to be. They had a solid broadcast team that we senior-citizen fans still talk about today: Remember Bob Jenkins, Larry Nuber and Benny Parsons? Sadly, all three have passed on to the great broadcast booth in heaven. Presumably.
As for IMSA, its season has been shuffled between Peacock, which I don’t have, and NBC and USA, which I do. All three of those networks each aired parts of the Rolex 24 Hours at Daytona this year, which wasn’t a big deal since I was there, but would have been confusing had I not been. Same with the Mobil 1 Twelve Hours of Sebring, which aired exclusively on Peacock.
In August, NASCAR moves from TNT to NBC, but this season the flagship NBC is airing only four races, with USA carrying the remaining 10, including many of the “Playoff” races, which begin with Darlington on August 31. Beginning June 22 with Pocono, Max will also carry every NASCAR race through the end of the season.
Confused yet? Well, at least IndyCar coverage has been a bright spot this season, with Fox, which just about everybody has, airing the whole schedule, including the Indianapolis 500. I’m sure that’s been expensive for IndyCar, but it is likely worth it, with fans knowing from race to race exactly where to tune in. Add in Fox’s promotion of IndyCar, which has been stellar, and it seems like a win-win.
NHRA drag racing has been reliably on Fox and its FS1 and FS2 channels, typically with same-day tape-delayed coverage. Other series I like, including Trans Am and ARCA, have bounced around, but have usually been findable. Trans Am airs on the reconstituted Speed Sport TV, and on its own YouTube channel, which seems to make sense. Check out SpeedSport.TV: Lots of interesting stuff there, much of it live.
The good news: More racing is being broadcast, either on TV or streaming, than ever: You just have to find it. Sanctioning body websites are perhaps the best sources, but when in doubt, just Google “broadcast coverage+2025+(your preferred sanctioning body here).”
Of course, this isn’t just an issue with auto racing: Last year, the NFL announced a TV package that includes games on CBS, FOX, ESPN, ABC, Amazon Prime, Peacock, ESPN+, the NFL Network and Netflix. Of those, Prime, Peacock, ESPN+, NFL and Netflix are all looking to attract new viewers, and are willing to pay for the opportunity.
Is all of this alphabet-soup shuffling a direct descendant of ESPN’s experiment to gamble on NASCAR 44 years ago? Arguably, yes. And expect more of it in years to come.