NASCAR is in the enviable position of successfully using eSport to grow its audience beyond the die-hards

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      One of the big talking entertainment talking points in our current lockdown times has been how this is a golden opportunity for eSports to grab the ball and run with it.

      With traditional sporting events on hold, NASCAR has not only figured out a way to engage its traditional fans but more importantly grow its audience.

      When its season was postponed as COVID-19 began to take root in North America, NASCAR was quick to pivot to iRacing.

      Drivers were set up with iRacing setups at home to participate in a mid-March inaugural eNASCAR iRacing Pro Series Invitational that drew 910,000 viewers—a record for eSports on television.

      This past weekend NASCAR broke its own viewership record when 1.3 million viewers tuned into Fox Sports 1 for the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Series’ O’Reilly Auto Parts 150.

      Where things become interesting is who was watching.

      According to stats compiled by industry standard bearer Nielsen, 25 percent of those who tuned into Sunday’s race from a virtual version of the Texas Motor Speedway hadn’t seen a NASCAR Cup Series race this year.

      That meant an audience of 255,000 was curious enough to tune into an iRacing version of NASCAR, that presumably generating interest in a sport they had previously shown little interest in

       

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