Probably should have mentioned my criteria for which series got included in the video: 4-wheeled racing series with the most global viewership/popularity. Needed to keep the video from becoming hours long, so forgive me if I didn't specifically mention your favorite series, but definitely leave a comment to let everyone know about it!
Motorcycle series i can think of: MotoGP MotoAmerica Super MotoCross Theres probably others I don’t know about theres also electronic racing series like Formula E and Extreme E as well as Short Track and Dirt Track only series to!
Hemingway allegedly once said “There are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games”. Today there is only one motor sport that still fits that distinction: Isle of Man TT. It is the only sports event that still has the danger and daredevil aspect of Grand Prix racing from the 40s, 50s, and 60s. 266 racers have been killed in the race during its 85 years. The only year without a fatality was 1982. In 2005, 11 drivers died, in the last race 2022 6 drivers and passengers (in the side car class) died. Since 2000 F1 has had one racing death, NASCAR Cup series has 1 (DE in 2001), WRC has had two (a driver and separately a co-driver). In those series more drivers die in testing and practice than racing. Safety is an excellent thing, but reduced risk does remove some of romance and thrill. I do not want more drivers to die, but I do miss the gladiator aspect of old school racing.
Please give Rallycross a go if anyone in the comments sections haven't watched it. The races are short quick-fire rounds so there's no worry about spending hours to watch a race(well if you follow it live then the whole weekend is kinda long but feel free to skip the waiting and do something else in between rounds right?), the racing is always close packed with actions, and there's strategic mind games when it comes to joker laps. The FIA sanctioned championships are a bit awkwardly organized in recent years but the sport itself is worth a watch. and Nitro Rallycross is fully FREE on youtube(except US, as the broadcast rights are sold to tv networks)
I went to a Red Bull Global Rallycross event (I think it's since been changed to the TitansRX series now) and it was hands down the most exciting racing I've seen live. I'm hoping Nitro can keep building momentum here in the U.S., as it always seems like sponsorship has been a big issue for previous RX series as the years go by. Thanks for watching!
Agreed, as a long time fan of rallycross, it's by far my favorite format. The crazy, ridiculous car behavior of rallying, mixed with traditional circuit racing makes RX a really entertaining product. Unfortunately, later seasons of GRC and WRX fell into utter VW dominance, but Nitro RX's spec FC1X has made for a really competitive series.
Clearly the most underrated motorsport IMO. Doesn't help when World RX had a massive step backwards in terms of coverage amidst the organizational and power transition (it's easier to blame going electric, but there are so many issues lying underneath with the process). I hope one day we'll see it progress from an European sport to a more global presence.
RallyX (and NitroRX outside US) are streaming the races live on RUclips, so accessibility shouldn't be the problem. Good stuff. Maybe not the NitroRX head-to-head which is boring as duck.
Sprint cars are awesome to watch! Didn't mention them in the video as I was trying to keep it to the motorsports with the highest global viewership. Thanks for watching!
Personally under the opinion that Sprint Cars are the best thing on earth. Descendants of Indycars ripping around local dirt tracks at incredible pace while drifting the entire corners is incredible. And I highlight *Local*
Honestly the stakes in the racing is also a massive part of the viewership experience. Watching the cars slide inches away knowing that one wrong move could send your car tumbling out of the race is nail biting.
@@themotorsportstory i understand why you didn’t include them but yeah man, sprint cars and late models are some of the best entertainment you could see. And they’re not even restricted to the us. The aussies caught on and throw events down there too lol
Australian here. I instantly fell in love with Nascar when I was 8 or 9 years old (25 years ago) and have followed it ever since. When Marcos Ambrose was racing, i'd record every race and watch it after work. The thing i love about Nascar is on any given day, at least 10 different drivers could win.
As a German who grew up watching it a lot, I would consider diversifying the category of 'Road Racing' a bit more. You could put the Supercars Championship and BTCC into the touring car bracket, IMSA and WEC are sportscar racing series and championships like the Mazda MX-5 cup qualify as one make series. Then there are the several balance of performance controlled GT racing series like the GT World Challenge for instance. This 'supercategory' of road racing is definitely the most diversified of them all so it deserves a deeper dive in my opinion. Other than that you pretty much nailed it.
Agree completely. I wanted to fit it into this video without making it too long, but as a result couldn't really cover the intricacies of each series. Doing a deep dive on different kinds of "road racing" and what makes them unique sounds like a great idea for a future video. Thanks for the comment!
@@themotorsportstory can you please make that video, ive been a racing fan for a long time but its still so confusing and i want a new motorsport to follow
Doesn't Nascar have the most diverse schedule? Road courses, a street course, very short ovals, boring ovals, big ovals, huge superspeedways, where pack racing occurs. It's worth pointing out
Thank you for this. As a fan of all of these at one time or another I think you really nailed down the important parts. I think WRC is a vastly untapped media resource. Can you imagine an American audience watch a live cam from inside a rally car? Getting to understand what the co-pilot does and how it all plays out at high speed?
I'm with you on that one. I really think that if there was more American media coverage and education about WRC, they might be able to drum up a more sizable fanbase. Maybe it's time for them to make a WRC streaming series like "Drive to Survive" haha
I’m in Aus, generally the biggest motorsports here are the Supercars and F1. The biggest problem with Supercars though is that teams with larger budgets tend to absolutely wipe the floor with the rest of the gird. Supercars can be fun but is also quite processional at times
I've seen some Supercars races that I really enjoyed, and also love Mt. Panorama Circuit (always a go-to for me in any racing games!) What you said about budgets is unfortunate but seems to be true for just about every motorsport. Here in the states, there's maybe 4 or 5 NASCAR Cup teams that have the ability to win (due to their large budgets) and the rest are just hoping to finish top 20. Thanks for watching!
I live in Indianapolis, so Indycar, NASCAR, and MotoGP were always the dominant racing series people payed attention to around me. Once I found out about F1, I neglected Indycar and NASCAR. Thanks to being a Ferrari fan, though, I’ve recently rejoined the Indycar fanbase and I honestly look forward to watching Indycar races more than the F1 races on most weekends. Additionally, Indycar is insanely more accessible than F1 as far as attending races. You can go watch an exciting race at a bunch of tracks across the country for a mere fraction of the price of an F1 race.
I hear many F1 fans say that oval racing is easy AF, you have infinite space to avoid crashing, but far from the truth. Oval Racing is hard AF, and driving on an oval with an 800 Horsepower brick is gruelling. And let's not forget the plethora of amazing racetracks they drive in, NASCAR outside of the Americas is overhated and underrated.
Been into F1 for as long as I can remember, as well as MotoGP and rallying. Lately I've diversified a lot since I really got into Nascar in 2017, then Indycar etc. I still love F1 but the current fan atmosphere is really terrible and I don't engage as much in it beyond raceday. Every day I love sportscar racing more and more (WEC, IMSA, BTCC, V8 Supercars, SuperGT, you name it) and it's quickly becoming one of my favorite types of racing if not my favorite. Cars you can actually tell apart beyond the livery, generally good racing, much less annoying, tribalist fans compared to other motorsports... still, if it has wheels, it's cool.
Coming from Finland, F1 and rally are of course the two of my favorite forms of motorsport. Here most of the media coverage is centered around those two thanks to the success of Finnish drivers in both disciplines. And with rally it definitely helps that we have tons of silent gravel roads where young people can drive their cars (sometimes even over the speed limit) and hone their skills, which makes the sport quite accessible even if you're not wealthy.
I think it's great how accessible Rally is in Finland! Here in America, a lot of people live where the roads only go straight and flat. I'm fortunate enough to have some twisty roads near me to enjoy 🙂
I remember watching the Grand Tour episode where they talk about Finland having the most car accidents out of any nation, despite having one of the most strict driving tests in the world. As an American who watches and searches for endless motorsports, my defense for the Finnish is I don't believe a lot of those car accidents were neccesarily... accidents. Like sure, they don't mean to crash but they certainly mean to release their inner-Marcus Gronholm and bolt through the Finnish backroads in their Peugeots and Volvos, going 130kph before ending upside down in a ditch. Those stats are skewed. Lol
@@lorddrac_dontaskmetodance I can see myself in this. Despite not having any big accidents (once clipped a sidewalk that bounced me into a ditch at a slow speed during winter) I know that many do drive over the speed limit, especially on roads they know. Someone I know had a crash at the road her grandmother lived because she knew the road and always drove way over the limit, until a car appeared behind a crest and she had to take avoiding action. I know for certain I drive way too fast on roads leading to my own grandparents in the countryside because I know the roads quite well, and even then my dad is even faster. But then again, I also know I'm in a different situation to most, where my parents have been heavily involved with the local motorsports club for decades and those roads I said go to my grandparents have been used in the Finnish Rally Championship years ago
Also to you I would add that we have folk racing (jokamiesluokka) where drivers get a starter level cars (I think the price that they have to be sold in races is around 1k) and anyone basically can buy a car and just have a go
My favorite series is well WAS DTM I stumbled upon it in 2018 and was and still am a super fan of Rene Rast a fellow German. But now that they changed the rules its not as enjoyable to I mainly was f1/indy and endurance racing.
favourite racing series is definitely IndyCar, got into it about a year or two ago when Stan sports became a thing and picked up IndyCar as i heard Scott McLaughlin was in the series. McLaughlin being one of my favourite drivers in the V8s i wanted to watch it so i watched a few races and got hooked
Something else is NHRA or dirt series like World of outlaws ( Sprint cars and late models). Seeing those cars full throttle inches from each other fighting for position is great. I love all them especially nascar and even two wheel racing like Supercross, MotoGP and Flat track
I'd recommend watching the IMSA spec Porsche Cup and Miata series over all other current motorsports. Lots of great on-track action with contacting racing and respect among drivers on tracks that the FIA would never allow to be built nowadays.
Oklahoma born and raised. I fell in love with rally racing when my dad bought me dirt for the original Xbox. Since than it has by far been my most favored sport. Even at 24 I still hope one day I can get on a real track. The closest thing I can think of to rally racing here in the US, that has a decent amount of spectators is Pikes Peak. Still, it is a sport that will go under appreciated but will always be in our hearts 💕 Race in peace, Colin 🚙💨
Thanks for the comment! Admittedly, I first got into Rally after playing DiRT 2, so similar story there. Pikes Peak is on my bucket list to check out someday for sure!
I'm from Spain, more specifically from Galicia, the epicenter of rally racing in the country, and obviously my favourite discipline. Watch some daily cars like the Skoda Fabia, Citroën C3, Peugeot 208, Hyundai i20, Ford Fiesta or the Toyota Yaris converted into absolutely monsters is something that fascinates me (the "Win on Sunday, sell on Monday" philosophy), and you can go to a stage and watch them passing near you for free, no ticket entries. I know that rally is not mainstream like F1 and is more an european thing, but it's a shame that US don't have a good coverage of WRC at least, because is something that worth to watch.
That's awesome that you can just go out there without a ticket for free! And yes, I'd love to see the U.S. get better WRC coverage (as far as getting it on some major tv networks)
The elefant in the room here is definetly GT3 racing. Feels like every country that has more than two racetracks has its own GT3 championship...sometimes even severall. Then you can also look in the smaller niches of racing: Rally Raid, Truck Racing, Stadium Supertrucks....if there is something with an engine and wheels on it, somebody is likely racing it.
Agreed! Like I talked about in the video with road racing, it always amazes me how many different championships and series there are which can be both a good and bad thing. Some of those smaller niches are very underrated too! Thanks for watching!
Yeah, the good thing from these global formulae (GT3, GT4, TCR) is that the same car can race pretty much anywhere, and even outdated machinery can stay active in local series
Yeah, Love GT3. Watched the Fanatec series Nurburging 3 hour race today, great race. The highlight was 24 hours of Spa though. Plus its free to watch on GTworld channel.
I'm really into Prototypes and F1 since they bring the most innovation to the table, however the racing is just insane in Supercars, FE(had 23 overtakes for the lead in the last event), MotoGP and even the Junior Formulas
I'm from the US and although I'll always be a nascar fan, imsa is probably my favorite. I love the different manufacturers go head to head at unique road courses, which seems like the polar opposite of nascar, but the environment around nascar for me at a young age I will always appreciate
I completely agree. I grew up in North Carolina, the NASCAR hotbed, but I seriously enjoy IMSA much more this year (and always have liked it). Imo NASCAR has too many kinks and quirks that turn off new fans and veterans alike, but with IMSA it feels like a gladiator match between teams and manufacturers. It feels more organic than the chopped up NASCAR races we have now. It's also easier to defend against haters than the "left turn" sport.
Biggest issue for Indycar is how off and on it's schedule is. Before Mid-May you get several 2 to 3 week breaks between races, then between the first Indy Road Course race until September the series pounds out races, and then vanishes into the ether mid-September (because of a justified fear of being made irrelevant by US Football). Seems a bit...odd...to lump Multi-class/Endurance racing like WEC with the likes of touring car series. Maybe that's just a me thing, I really don't have much investment in anything that's not the Hypercar/Prototype and LMP2 classes in those series. As someone who got into Rallying really big between 2016 and 2018 before falling out of it, my biggest issue was just how impractical and hard it was to watch it like an actual event. You'll have things like the officials youtube channel or RedBullTV which can give decent summaries, but only special stages and maybe one more stage gets proper 'live' coverage, so it feels like watching only the fourth and final innings of a baseball game while some randos give you a quick summary of what's happened in all the other innings. It's just really not practical to 'watch'. But to study/read about? It's fantastic. Also shoutout to Formula E. While I do think most of it's popularity is artificial and terraformed, if you want a series that's not afraid of gimmicks and contact while being way shorter then a NASCAR race, it's a good way to go.
Formula E is worth adding to the ranks, especially now that the popularity contest of Fanboost is gone. The new cars especially evoke the same small-car open wheel feeling that F1 did a long, long time ago, but there are some pretty big issues still plaguing the sport, like bad marshall standards and a tendency to keep old, boring street courses on the calender even as they transition to including proper racetracks as well (looking at you, Berlin airport track)
I hadn't realized they ditched the "fanboost" thing until I started reading some of these comments. Honestly, that was one of the things keeping me away from it.
NASCAR's stage racing is awesome btw. They give points out at the end of each stage which encourages drivers to run good throughout the race instead of just worrying about the finish.
I love all, but my favourite does rotate year on year being from Uk nascar always intrigued me and I got hooked then after watching 2 full seasons just got fed up with all gimmicks. Now I’m full swing into Wec/Endurance racing I feel the level of drivers in pro entries are amazing.
Agreed on both points! As an American I grew up watching Nascar, but it has unfortunately gone downhill regulation wise. Unlike some people, I really like the current car, but the gimmicks like stage racing, inconsistencies with yellow flags and penalties, and so on get quite tiring.
NASCAR stopped being interesting after 1970. Before that, it really was stock car racing. The car you saw racing at 200 mph on TV was basically the same car you saw in the showroom. Cars were unique and were getting faster and faster until 1970. Nwadays the only thing that's stock about stock cars is the name. And what is a Toyota Camry doing in NASCAR? It's not even a muscle car and no road going versin of it features a v8. And them including more road courses in the callender is what killed it for me. Why? Just go watch GT3
i grew up as a nascar fan, but as i got older i got into other sports. and now my favorite has to be indycar, its like my sweet tooth of motor racing, once it happens its like a treat. its really hard to watch all formula one races since they are so early or late in the day for me so its a real struggle, but i really love open wheel racing. so punishing, and you gotta be smart in order to make your moves
I’m from the Western USA. I’m an endurance racing fan who tried to get everybody I can on IMSA, 24h, and WEC. Great series where there’s never a dull moment. Ever. Great stuff.
basically agree with everything here. i just try to give all of it a chance. i could say F2 , F3 , moto 2 , moto3 and v8 sup are the most complete. Nascar is way better than we, the non States people think. im from DR.
Coming from Germany, I've become a huge Supercars fan and rewatched older races as they hit their channel. The Gen3 changes leveled the playing field quite a bit and the bigger teams are not as superior as they used to be. It's more about the driver and what they can achieve with the mechanical platform with their engineers. They hit the sweet spot performance wise as well. The cherry on the top is that most of the reporters and commentators are former drivers. Never knew how good that is for the viewing experience until I watched Supercars regularly. DTM should take note… Both MX-5 and even some Formula E races have tought me that you don't need over the top performance figures and top speeds to create exciting races, espacially MX-5 series is hilarious fun to watch. Spec series are in my opinion required if you want to know who the best driver is. When it comes to engineering prowes, I think GTP/LMDh/Hypercars do a better job than F1, since the multiple drivers setup already de-emphasizes the driver part and make it more about the car and the team as a whole. As you said, all forms have something to make them worth watching, so go have fun watching them all!
I'm from Hungary and a F1 fan since I was 5, so obviously that is my favorite series, however, I love motorsports in general. I always try to watch Formula 2 and 3, and it's easier because they start before F1 events. Furthermore, I try to watch IndyCar and sometimes Nascar, but they start very late for me and I usually stuck with the highlights. If I have time, I try to watch WRC and MotoGP too. If there are 24h races I usually follow them as well, like this and last year the Daytona, Le Mans, Nürburgring and Spa. Almost forgot, I watch WTCR (previously WTCC) since I dunno, 2010-2011, but sadly It looks like it will be rebranded as an entirely different series this year. In short, I love all kinds of racing.
Great! I have the opposite problem, haha F1 starts very early in the morning for me which can make it hard to watch live. I wasn't familiar with WTCR so you've given me a new series to watch. Thanks for the comment!
I think most of the “division” you speak about comes from F1 fans who think they hold a level of eliteness. Most other motorsport fans respect and enjoy a bunch of different types of racing
Currently, my biggest draw-ins are resemblance to road cars, variety of brands, shapes and challenges (why not?), and, of course, competitiveness. I love technical development, but more in the sense of taking an everyday commuter and making it go fast. I usually watch for the cars first. This is how touring cars, hillclimbs, rallying, drifting and drag racing stick out to me, but I just get excited about motorsports in general.
Americans and Aussies both have dirt oval racing, its all the insane car control, engineering and racing on tiny dirt ovals dotted around the US, its available basically everywhere here, its amazing
I fell in love with NASCAR during the pandemic, and that passion for the sport carried over the Indycar, which are pretty much the only two motorsports i pay super close attention to, although i do enjoy the odd IMSA race from time to time. They just have what in my opinion is the most fun and best racing to watch week to week and the crown jewl races are American staples every year, the Daytona 500 and Indy 500 are America's greatest gifts to motor racing imo. I've always hated F1 mostly due to the fans, I've warmed up more to it recently cause of the drivers, but my experience with F1 fans has always been very elitist and snobbish when in a lot of ways, F1 has some of the worst racing in motorsports, especially with Max V being so dominant these days (no disrespect to him but it gets boring watching the same 2 or 3 dudes win every GP i watch based seemingly on who gets the pole that week). I respect people who enjoy it but i wish so many of them wouldn't bash NASCAR and other motorsports for not being exactly like F1.
I think you hit the nail on the head with the last sentence. I have friends who enjoy F1 who won't even give NASCAR or IndyCar a shot because "they're redneck" or "they're worse than F1". I don't want to group all F1 fans into the same category, but I'd say the few fans who actively tear down other motorsports aren't real racing fans themselves.
yeah, F1 fans do suck. Like a lot, especially since the racing isn't even all that great, this is coming from an F1 fan. The Lewis fanbase and Max fanbase will get really toxic, not even a might, it's almost inevitable. In terms of racing it would probably be NASCAR or Indy first, then the other motorsports. Out of all of them F1 sucks the most, idk what it is but I like it. Probably because I'm a RedBull fan and they're winning😂
im from argentina and my favorite series is all endurance racing in general , i love see the teams evolve in the middle of the race , i watch a lot of argentinian motorsport like Turismo Carretera (from where canapino drived ) , tc2000 , turismo nacional , etc but i think my fav is the imsa , is like the wec but well made.
@@edugj23 i watch a lot brazil stock car , is very cool and probably i gonne be if they race in buenos aires this year again. the only thing i dont understand from brasil is that weird nascar series , i dont get it but... if it works i think its ok.
Drag racing sucks. Yeah I get it, it's loud 10,000 horsepower blah blah blah. The novelty of that wears off pretty quick and your left watching the same 4 second race down a straight line over and over. It's terrible.
I'm Peruvian, here in the continent we don't have that much of a space for racing since we're mostly focused on getting out of the "third world country" bracket and due to that, Motorsports kinda falls off, but recently it started to become something. In Perú we have the CCTC (Circuit Championship Touring Competition) and it's ok. Here at least a new wave of Formula 1 fans has emerged after Netlifx's DTS series. From around 500K Peruvian viewers in 2020 we jumped to +1.25M for the 2021 Season after all the LH44 vs MV33 Season battle for the ages. Indeed it's becoming more popular, but also it's still a long way to go before something big gets done here to boost viewership. Now me, I'm a huge Endurance Racing fan. IMSA, WEC, GTWC you name it, I watch it. The aspect of strategy across a long race which is not defined only by who has the best machine but rather the best squad, consistency and mind in the game is absolutely brutal personally speaking. I'm also into Indycar and F1, but F1 has been dying off for me a tad since they are going too far away from what made the series the most prestigious on the planet and going more for the show rather than focusing on improving the product. That's my take.
Interesting to read, thank you for sharing! It is quite impressive what the DTS series did for bringing in new fans. And yes, strategy is one of the best parts of endurance racing!
There's a lot of comments like this! Maybe I'll try and put one together specifically focusing on off-road disciplines, although there's so many different kinds of dirt oval cars, that could even be its own video!
i like all of these racing series, im from canada so we get more nascar type stuff here nascar and indycar are probably my favourites but i still like all also i like how indycar kinda takes a bit from both nascar and f1 at the same time
Hey man great video! I know I am 2 months late, but I wanted to say it anyways. I'm from Australia but my background is Nigeria, and I am a big fan of NASCAR I also recently started following F1 and WEC, and even started doing Go Karting for fun Honestly it is tiring when people keep on stereotyping NASCAR as just "racing in circles" when it has its own type of racing. At least you brought this up to 7.3K current viewers. Thank's for a good video man, definitely excited to see what else you got.
That's what honestly made it hard for me to get into early on. People are people and I won't group all F1 fans into that category, but there's certainly some of them that can be off-putting towards new fans.
I'm from PH and a fan of WRC and Rally Cross, when I found it when i was like 10 yrs old, I fell in love with it instantly and became a fan, even considering becoming one but I have no balls to commit.
When speed was around and they had recaps of WRC events, it really peaked my interest in the sport. I wish we had that still. I feel like the WRC are really missing out by not having similar recaps on their RUclips channel. I believe you could really grab attention by doing full recap of events.
Attending in person has got to be NHRA Drag Racing. There isn’t anything quite like 11,000 HP race cars. It’s definitely a snooze watching it on TV though, which is why IndyCar is my favorite to follow along with.
Must have been awesome to see them run there! I have yet to make it out to a NASCAR road course race. Been to plenty of ovals, but no road courses yet :)
I'm from Brazil, was born after Senna's death and grown up (trying to) cheer Rubens Barrichello, then the sport died here and I just started to follow it again in 2018 (before DTS btw) and got hooked ever since, but in 2021 I discovered Indycar and it was love at first sight, it has actually surpassed F1 for me now, great racing, the 2021 Indy 500 was the best experience watching a racing series I've ever had, obviously because a brazillian driver won it, but the racing was amazing either way
Great video 👍 as an F1 fan since the early 2000's I always find other forms of racing to get my fix when there is no F1 on a particular weekend I've been following both Nascar and Indycar especially since Grosjean moved over to Indy but I must admit I find myself only watching the road or street courses because I just can't understand the whole oval circuits and watching cars turn left the entire time 😅 I can fully appreciate the skill and courage required to race on ovals though.
When the Speed Channel existed. I watched everything. From Outlaws, Dirt, Hooters, Arca, demolition derbies, school bus racing, Australian Supercars, etc But I really love NASCAR. I got into it at the start of 2004. I would watch all 3 series qualifying and race series on weekends. I get up at 8am MT to watch all the pre-race discussions, and then the race starts at noon (I can not remember being too long since I watched a race). I stopped watching in 2013. Got too "corporate." Jeff Gordon was my favorite
Nice insight on every major racing series. As a Bangladeshi 🇧🇩, motorsport culture isn't big here. It has very niche fandom (we have Avik Anwar who races in UAE 🇦🇪 organized races), perceived to be a rich man's sport because of it's barrier to entry involving a vehicle. From 20 years ago, I have casually watched almost all the racing series you mentioned here except the Mazda series maybe. Been watching Formula E since around 2015, awaiting this series to become the pinnacle because FE is great to watch from an Engineering perspective.
I would argue that NASCAR has the most diverse schedule. Street courses, road courses, dirt oval, short track oval, intermediate oval, and superspeedways.
Im brazilian and I think you can guess what my favourite type of racing is, by my profile pic. Sportscar and Endurance racing tho is a very close 2nd place, then comes motorcycle racing, which is just absolutely wild, the purest form of motorsport where the human is most connected to the machine and Indycar. The list of the series I most enjoy would be: 1 - WRC 2 - IMSA 3 - WEC 4 - MotoGP 5 - Indycar Then theres other racing series like Stock Car Brasil, Nascar, GT World Challenge, WorldSBK, Touring Cars, MotoAmerica, love all of them too
an interesting motorsport thats still around is Trials. This was essentially the origins of rally special stages, which combined with the long road rallies of the time with long routes and co-drivers/navigators to make modern rally series. Essentially trials is a sport where you either win or lose, there is no ranking, and you win by simply making it to your destination. Normal cars 2 wheel drive normal road tyres all on some of the most difficult offroad terrain imaginable without needing special suspension and massive wheels. Trials is still very popular in motorcycle racing, where the rules are "dont put your feet down" while the rider clambers over ridiculous boulders and hopping from fallen trees, but car trials are still held in britain as they have done for over 100 years. its very entertaining to see the likes of the suzuki X90 and mk3 toyota mr2 "racing" with modified cars from the 1920s that are still going, all with cars like the classic beetle and triumph TR7 running with them.
That's really interesting! I've seen plenty of motorcycle trials videos, but wasn't actually aware they had it for cars as well. I've got something new to look up, thank you!
Italy here. WRC used to be super exciting, especially Group B, Group A, and 1999 to 2006. The best eras. And we had great champions (Gigi Galli, Biasion anyone??)and races here in Italy, but now it's really a poor series, sadly, mainly for budget reasons, nobody can afford some Rally1 cars (so the regulation does not allow them in tha main championship), so now we have rallies full of... well, the monster Fabia r5 ally2. Quite boring honestly. At least we have Rally Legend which is a MONSTROUS exciting rally event. Then , I really love GT3, but we miss manifacturer here, compared to some yars ago ( with Nissan GTR, Bentley, etcetera). But, the best motorsport to see in Italy now, to me, it's TIME ATTACK and trackdays (follow Davide Cironi). Pure passion, lot of incredible tuning, and most of all a really genuine atmosphere, both in the racetrack, tha paddocks, and in the spectator park, where you can look to great cars, talk friendly to people, and eat great food in some occasions. To me. my country has some sparks ( alfa Giulia, Abarth 500 ( NOT ELECTRIC), and Ferrari of course), but has lost its soul in the istant classics small cars like Uno Turbo, Coupè 20 valves Turbo, Punto Abarth, Punto GT generation, Alfa 147 GTA, LANCIA DELTA EVO, and so on....
I love everything racing. I’m from Illinois in the states and here dirt oval racing is huge. World of Outlaws and Dirt car is king. Late models, sprint cars, modifieds, and midgets are extremely popular. Flat track motorcycle racing is also popular.
As a nascar fan I can say that the playoffs are pretty dumb and almost every fan hates it. Also I like stages but I don’t think they should stop the race, just let the drivers get their points but let them keep on racing. Edit: To add on to some of my favorite racing series, you missed out on all the local styles of racing here in the US. Since I live near a dirt track, I absolutely love seeing dirt late models flying around a bullring and I think it is really exciting.
Argentina here. We have the oldest league in motorsports... its call TC or Turismo Carretera. Its first championship was held in 1937 and the cars and competition evolved into what we have now. They first used coupes, ford, chevrolet, dodge. Races were like dirt rally, from point A to point B and also few laps around HUGE rural/main roads closed for the event. On mid to late 60's they swap the old coupes for modern production cars like IKA Torino, Ford Falcon, Chevrolet Nova, Dodge Polara/Coronado. They still raced on public roads and tracks... until mid 90's with the same cars, but heavily modified. Now they only race in tracks, and cars are prototypes shaped as those 70's ones, with spoilers, sidepods and weird bonnets. Its still one of the most popular motorsports in South America. Drivers like Juan Manuel Fangio (5 times F1 champ), José Froilán González (First winner ever for Ferrari in F1), Carlos Reutemann (He lost the F1 championship by 1 point in early 80's) and José María Lopez (24h of Le Mans winner, WEC Champ and 3 times Champ of WTCR), to name a few, have raced in TC.
I’m from the UK - I partially grew up watching F1 (because of my dad, who’s now lost interest), and I’ve recently started getting into IndyCar - I think both series have their pros and cons, but they’re both entertaining to me.
Watch Indycar!!!! love Indycar so much. Racing is almost always great, the field is the deepest and largest it’s been in years. I just wish the series had more fans to inspire more races and discourse-if you’re a motorsports fan, watch Indycar in May/June. You likely won’t be disappointed. As far as other series, The summation of F1 was pretty good, but the part I feel was left out is the dramatic aspect of manufacturer vs. manufacturer, country vs. country, team vs. team, and driver vs. driver. From an American’s POV, it just FEELS European-not a bad thing, but foreign and full of elitist sentiment. NASCAR hasn’t been the same in a while… less marketable drivers, weird schedule, cars aren’t even stock, bad rule changes, stages, and a joke of a points system. Road racing (IMSA fan) is fantastic, but could use more exposure even in the world of motorsports. As for rally… maybe I’ll give it a try.
Personally I like every series, I grew up watching Nascar and F1 back in 2010-2013. I moved to Rally and RX as my focus during 2014-2015 and rn I mostly watch F1 and Indy with sum important races of other series as my must watch (Le Mans, Bathurst 1000 or Daytona 500 for example) and if i have free time I watch sum drift series or Super GT. I'm also entering MotoGP as a regular watcher for the first time in my short 19yo and I rlly like it and i even had the chance to be in the local pro kart scene of my country (Perú) for a few years. Motorsport ia so rich and there literally something for everyone. I think the top 2 japan racing series and the Australian racing series are very underrated cause they give a lot of show everytime. Also RX is too underrated casue that is wild af. I feel that for people that are fans of cars like purists and love super close racing with less politics into it like the 90s stuff yall should try series like that which live out of the media focus or also watch feder series for the biggest series too
Floridaman here. Live about just over an hour drive away from Daytona. I'm just a petrolhead. Whether it is road course racing or oval, I'll go watch it. People watching the different crowds that show up is cool too. I've been to a dozen or so nascar tracks, the rolex 24hr, and even made a stop in Perth Australia for a V8 supercar weekend. It's all good for me. Only problem,for me, is that formula 1 ticket prices are way to expensive. Miami grand prix tickets were almost 2k per seat.
From what I see in my social circles, there will always be people that will egg on others for the motorsports they like just for attention or to belittle others. My perspective as a life long NASCAR fan usually saw people who watch F1 and WRC do this a little more, but I am aware that this can apply to anybody from any fanbase - that point you mentioned about "being conditioned to a certain style of racing" outlines that well to add to that. That's at least where I think a big source of division comes from. Thanks to some neat individuals, I've been starting to follow IMSA and Indycar a little more now, and I'm greatly enjoying it! Though despite all the rule changes and landscape shifting, I feel NASCAR will always be apart of me in some way. This was a great watch! We honestly need more people like you who strive to try and bring others together. Greetings from Canada!
F1 has become boring in a sense that how a single team is to dominate the whole season. Using Red Bull as an example. The FIA imposed cost caps, but it's evident that Red Bull has exceeded their cost cap by extra performance of their cars. So they have to be cheating. And yet the FIA does nothing effective about it. The cost caps were supposed to create a parity between the cars, and make it more about the drivers. But that never seems to work. Some team will always find a way to cheat. It was boring to me when Mercedes was dominating the field. And now my personal opinion. I do not like the Red Bull. More specifically, I do not like the Red Bull brand. It's mostly all the stunts that are done under Red Bull funding. All of these stunts are extremely dangerous, and I am just waiting for a Red Bull sponsored stunt to end up killing somebody. All the stunts are superfluous, and are performed only to promote the Red Bull brand.
I wanted to get into NASCAR but they're stupid points system, the playoffs and the way they always try to keep everyone in a pack. Just makes it all feel unauthentic. We need a new family running NASCAR.
began watching nascar in 2004 & am in my 18th season of watching the sport. i didn't branch out into other forms of motorsport until the early-mid 2010s but it wasn't until 2019 that it completely fleshed out. nascar, f1, & indycar are the ones i watch the most & give the most attention to. that being said, i've begun to pay attention to aussie supercars & wec a hell of a lot more. imsa is in a category of its own between those parties. when it comes to the best racing, it's incredibly difficult to compare. nascar, indy, imsa, wec, supercars, all have decent (on avg.) on-track products at the least. f1 lags behind but makes up for it in spectacle & technicality, although it has produced some incredible races in the 10 seasons i've watched dating back to 2014. *i do want to preface this by saying i believe f1 is a racing series first & that the engineering and drama play supporting roles, albeit strong ones motorsport is something that i devote myself towards, as a us citizen i don't pay attention to stick-and-ball on a weekly basis other than the nfl but even then racing takes priority. it's just the passion i have for it. it's my life and one day i want to participate in these events as a driver, i don't know where i'd be today without the sport.
Have watched all type of racing & Indy Car for me has it all. Open wheel, amazing sound, great tracks & the unpredictability is what makes it the best series out there.
I prefer old motorsport in general, like older Sports prototype racing such as Le mans, old style f1 and grand prix, also the absolutely bonkers cars of the 60s and 70s Can-Am.
No NHRA? Dafuq? There is nothing more diverse than drag racing. Sure, the course never changes, but the cars sure do. And nothing else in motorsports comes close to matching the visceral impact of being near the starting line when two Top Fuel rails punch the throttle. It's also the most open, family-oriented motorsport. Literally every ticket is a pit pass that lets you walk around and watch the crews work on their cars between rounds.
American here. I grew up starting with F1 and moving to other sports, never really got into NASCAR or Indycar, but more into rally and GT racing. Would be a dream to participate in either one someday.
I've been a long F1 fan for like a decade now. Started watching indycar 3 years ago. And today I prefer Indycar races over F1. Though I'm always interested in what the F1 teams can find in upgrades every weekend
Aussie here of course love the supercars go to the Bathurst 1000 every year. Also like the WEC going to Le Mans this year cant wait But to me most exciting racing are sprintcars & speedcars Great video by the way
I'm from México and i've been going to rally since 2011, best Motorsports ever, you get a lot of action if you get a nice spot, free to watch most of the times, great environments, you get to know the cars, drivers and teams so close that seems unreal. Also seeing a rally car in the street going to the stage is freaking awesome. Plus you get a full week of racing if you count the Mondays test, the recce and shakedown.
I'm very new to motorsport and so far i like Rally stuff with all this intense driving and i also like diverse cars, thats why Nascar doesnt seem like something i would watch and F1 so far seemed to be really uniform with the cars as well, maybe thats just me being uninformed.
I’m a Brit who’s loved F1 for most of my life, and yet a couple years ago I discovered Indycar and can honestly say I enjoy that series so much more than F1 now. It’s such a fantastic spectacle and every race throws up something different
Grew up watching nascar, and Indy. my neighbor was a big f1 fan so i found that from him but i didn't follow every race until around 2015. my favorite series is probably IMSA. I've been to the races at Road America the last 2 years and its great. i love multi class racing, it produces a lot of overtaking which is what i enjoy.
I love this content. United all motorsport communities!!! As an American, I’ll meet nascar fans and I’ll meet f1 fans but it’s so rare to find a motorsport fan as a whole like myself
Never been too fond of Formula for the exact reasons you've mentioned, it's too damn engineered. The drivers have machines I'll never imagine being able to drive, and corner capability that puts me to sleep with how effective it is. NASCAR I couldn't care less about, I'm not from the US. Rally is king for me, just pure automotive PAIN. Cars break, drivers fail, the track is your greatest rival. Watched a rally back in my homeland, incredible stuff although it was just one or two cars passing every couple of minutes. I loved it. One guy ended up uninjured pulling his car out of a lake, another's Ford Focus had a good 2.6m drop of the side of the road, rolled about 6 times. EVERYBODY cheered. Best thing we had seen all day. Nobody was hurt thank God, maybe the drivers ego. Even had a modified LADA with original suspension, damn thing turned into a SWING on a corner. Had some GAZ trucks racing too, all modified V8s. 2 of them didn't survive the first race. Absolute insanity in Rally, I love it.
My problem is they keep changing the streaming channel on all sports. I was just getting back into Indy and they changed to a streaming channel I dodn't have. So I don't watch it anymore. Another point is I am invested in some sports through having a great general knowledge of their drivers, teams, and history. I don't watch some (even when they have great racing) simply because I don't care about any of the teams or drivers.
Those are both really good points. Network agreements can really ruin the reach of some series. And to your other point, it's certainly easier to get invested in a racing series when you follow/care about the outcomes for a specific team or driver. Thanks for watching!
Honestly motocross and supercross are the most exciting motorsports at the moment. Bar to bar action and there are just more techniques to get a dirt bike to go faster than a car it’s more dependent on rider skill
Okay, second comment: I appreciate what you're doing here, and you've earned my subscription to the channel! I'm a racing/motorsports enthusiast, so any kind of speed-over-distance competition interests me. I've been watching F1 steadily for about 10 years now. It can get tiresome seeing the same 3 manufacturers at the top, and seeing one team dominate most of the season. But the beauty in F1 comes mid-pack. Those teams who are fighting to be in the points. I do love seeing the fights for the win (when they happen), but the best action isn't usually up front. I've watched NASCAR for nearly 30 years. I even own a number of NASCAR racing simulators, and got my first one at 8 years old. The appeal of NASCAR is definitely the close quarters racing and the variety in possible race winners. I doubt any other racing series can boast the number of race winners NASCAR can (partly because of the 36-race schedule), and it's neat because, especially now, nearly any car on the track has a shot at a victory. Indycar I've watched for almost as long as NASCAR. My introduction to open-wheel racing came from Indycar, and now that I've become a bit of a motorsports historian, it's cool learning how many drivers (and even teams) have gone back and forth from Indycar to F1. Plus there's no oval racing more exciting than these things sustaining 210 side by side. Heart-in-your-throat racing. I've gotten more into road racing recently, but I watch races from IMSA, WEC, Supercars, MX-5 Cup (probably my favorite), etc. WRC and other rally events I probably watch the least, but I have great appreciation for that form of motorsport. In all honesty, rally drivers are the best drivers on the planet, bar none. They're also the most insane. Because a wrong move isn't just contact with the barrier. It could mean flipping into a forest, through someone's house, or off the side of a mountain. I can't wait to see more of your content! As I mentioned in my last comment, I'm also a fan of drag racing, but there's also dirt track racing, short track racing, motorcycle sprint track racing, MotoGP and World Superbike, Motorcross, boat racing, drag boat racing... there's so much motorsport out there, I'm interested in seeing what topics you bring up!
Thanks for sharing all of that and the subscription! Love hearing about peoples' experiences and what lead to their enthusiasm for each kind of motorsport. And I'm with you on the simracing side, I always have the most fun driving NASCAR cars!
I’m from the United States. I’ve been watching NASCAR since I was in diapers(according to my mom) I got into F1 and Indycar in 2010. F1 really caught my attention because it was nothing like I had ever seen before, from the sounds to the stage. And with Indycar, I loved the close battles and stuff. Occasionally I’ll watch endurance and rally. But my big 3 are nascar, Indy, and F1. I’m 19 btw
Good video but are we completely omitting 2 wheeled racing? Do they not have motors? Are they not categorised as "motorsport"? Motogp is arguably one of the best racing series where you can find almost all of what you explained. Insanely fast machines, very skilled riders and some extremely close racing for example.
What's sad about a lot of these series is they can be really hard to watch in North America. It's improving with the whole "Post the race on RUclips a week later" thing but before the last couple of years? Your main, options usually were: 1. Pay a bunch extra for a big package of TV channels, only to care about 2 of them. If you have TV at all. 2. Pay for an expensive subscription service to watch a season, only to find out the service is dreadful in some way, on top of the fact that you probably have to spend more on another big subscription, to watch a second series. 3. Highlights. A quick summary for those who missed half a race? Fine, I guess. But when you have hours of content you could've watched and got a 2 and a half minute recap, it gets painful after a while. Again, glad things are picking up, but for a long while it got pretty terrible... RIP Speed Channel.
RIP Speed for sure. I remember ESPN even having a lot more racing coverage than they do now. You brought up a big issue for sure. Can't get new fans into your sport if they can't even access it.
For the past over a decade now my favourite category of racing has to be anything with a GT3 category. Any manufacturer worth their salt has a GT3 model. The racing is pretty much always close, whether its a 40 minute sprint or a 24 hour endurance, and there are races of almost any length in between to suit any attention span. The class has been adopted globally, regionally and nationally so anyone anywhere can find a series and watch a race on a whole variety of circuits from every corner of the planet. But the best thing is that the teams and drivers that run a GT3 car are eligible for any of these races, so you see the same teams and drivers popping up all over the world to compete in these different races. Even when the class isnt the main event such as the GTD class in IMSA, its always where a lot of the action can be found. Even the ACO have finally given in and are using it in WEC and Le Mans from 2024. And its pretty much all free to watch on youtube. IMSA, SRO ('Blancpain'), British/Australian/French/German national GT, GT Open, Creventic 24H series to name but a few.
In 2021 i used to watch F1 a lot,but in 2022 i got bored of dominating one driver and decided to try look for Nascar, and its just happened that Cup series was racing at COTA, long story short, i can miss 1-2 races of F1, but i gotta watch at least 2 stages of Cup. Watching 3-rd stage could be hard, cause my time could be at 4 a.m. And I am from Russia
Probably should have mentioned my criteria for which series got included in the video: 4-wheeled racing series with the most global viewership/popularity. Needed to keep the video from becoming hours long, so forgive me if I didn't specifically mention your favorite series, but definitely leave a comment to let everyone know about it!
No motorcycle racing?
Motorcycle series i can think of: MotoGP MotoAmerica Super MotoCross Theres probably others I don’t know about theres also electronic racing series like Formula E and Extreme E as well as Short Track and Dirt Track only series to!
Hemingway allegedly once said “There are only three sports: bullfighting, motor racing, and mountaineering; all the rest are merely games”. Today there is only one motor sport that still fits that distinction: Isle of Man TT.
It is the only sports event that still has the danger and daredevil aspect of Grand Prix racing from the 40s, 50s, and 60s. 266 racers have been killed in the race during its 85 years. The only year without a fatality was 1982. In 2005, 11 drivers died, in the last race 2022 6 drivers and passengers (in the side car class) died.
Since 2000 F1 has had one racing death, NASCAR Cup series has 1 (DE in 2001), WRC has had two (a driver and separately a co-driver). In those series more drivers die in testing and practice than racing. Safety is an excellent thing, but reduced risk does remove some of romance and thrill. I do not want more drivers to die, but I do miss the gladiator aspect of old school racing.
You also missed off-road racing such as what ever championship runs the baja 1000, pro 4wd, pro 2wd, the Dakar rally, and stadium super trucks
You should've put some motorcycle racing tho😢
MotoGP
WSBK
Motoamerica
BSB
And so on
Please give Rallycross a go if anyone in the comments sections haven't watched it. The races are short quick-fire rounds so there's no worry about spending hours to watch a race(well if you follow it live then the whole weekend is kinda long but feel free to skip the waiting and do something else in between rounds right?), the racing is always close packed with actions, and there's strategic mind games when it comes to joker laps. The FIA sanctioned championships are a bit awkwardly organized in recent years but the sport itself is worth a watch. and Nitro Rallycross is fully FREE on youtube(except US, as the broadcast rights are sold to tv networks)
I went to a Red Bull Global Rallycross event (I think it's since been changed to the TitansRX series now) and it was hands down the most exciting racing I've seen live. I'm hoping Nitro can keep building momentum here in the U.S., as it always seems like sponsorship has been a big issue for previous RX series as the years go by. Thanks for watching!
Agreed, as a long time fan of rallycross, it's by far my favorite format. The crazy, ridiculous car behavior of rallying, mixed with traditional circuit racing makes RX a really entertaining product. Unfortunately, later seasons of GRC and WRX fell into utter VW dominance, but Nitro RX's spec FC1X has made for a really competitive series.
Clearly the most underrated motorsport IMO. Doesn't help when World RX had a massive step backwards in terms of coverage amidst the organizational and power transition (it's easier to blame going electric, but there are so many issues lying underneath with the process). I hope one day we'll see it progress from an European sport to a more global presence.
RallyX (and NitroRX outside US) are streaming the races live on RUclips, so accessibility shouldn't be the problem. Good stuff. Maybe not the NitroRX head-to-head which is boring as duck.
If worldRX scrapped it’s honestly pointless streaming service and went back to being on another service with multiple other series would happily watch
I've always figured that sprint cars on dirt were the most exciting.
Sprint cars are awesome to watch! Didn't mention them in the video as I was trying to keep it to the motorsports with the highest global viewership. Thanks for watching!
Personally under the opinion that Sprint Cars are the best thing on earth. Descendants of Indycars ripping around local dirt tracks at incredible pace while drifting the entire corners is incredible. And I highlight *Local*
Honestly the stakes in the racing is also a massive part of the viewership experience. Watching the cars slide inches away knowing that one wrong move could send your car tumbling out of the race is nail biting.
@@themotorsportstory i understand why you didn’t include them but yeah man, sprint cars and late models are some of the best entertainment you could see. And they’re not even restricted to the us. The aussies caught on and throw events down there too lol
You never seen an outlaw figure 8 race then.
Australian here. I instantly fell in love with Nascar when I was 8 or 9 years old (25 years ago) and have followed it ever since. When Marcos Ambrose was racing, i'd record every race and watch it after work. The thing i love about Nascar is on any given day, at least 10 different drivers could win.
Man, Marcos Ambrose put on some shows, especially at Watkins Glen!
More than 10 nowadays !
Been a NASCAR fan for the past 9 years and I’m also an Australian.
Im part Australian and I also love Nascar.
Jeff Gordon was my favourite driver.
Could you explain a little about what makes Nascar work for you, outside of it being so competitive?
As a German who grew up watching it a lot, I would consider diversifying the category of 'Road Racing' a bit more. You could put the Supercars Championship and BTCC into the touring car bracket, IMSA and WEC are sportscar racing series and championships like the Mazda MX-5 cup qualify as one make series. Then there are the several balance of performance controlled GT racing series like the GT World Challenge for instance. This 'supercategory' of road racing is definitely the most diversified of them all so it deserves a deeper dive in my opinion. Other than that you pretty much nailed it.
Agree completely. I wanted to fit it into this video without making it too long, but as a result couldn't really cover the intricacies of each series. Doing a deep dive on different kinds of "road racing" and what makes them unique sounds like a great idea for a future video. Thanks for the comment!
@@themotorsportstory can you please make that video, ive been a racing fan for a long time but its still so confusing and i want a new motorsport to follow
Doesn't Nascar have the most diverse schedule?
Road courses, a street course, very short ovals, boring ovals, big ovals, huge superspeedways, where pack racing occurs. It's worth pointing out
Good point!
And the bristol dirt race!
@@captainwaffles940 I was thinking about it, but ended up not including it like a total doof
Watching the draw in the lottery is the same. Boring as hell.
You are joking, right?
Thank you for this. As a fan of all of these at one time or another I think you really nailed down the important parts. I think WRC is a vastly untapped media resource. Can you imagine an American audience watch a live cam from inside a rally car? Getting to understand what the co-pilot does and how it all plays out at high speed?
I'm with you on that one. I really think that if there was more American media coverage and education about WRC, they might be able to drum up a more sizable fanbase. Maybe it's time for them to make a WRC streaming series like "Drive to Survive" haha
I’m in Aus, generally the biggest motorsports here are the Supercars and F1. The biggest problem with Supercars though is that teams with larger budgets tend to absolutely wipe the floor with the rest of the gird. Supercars can be fun but is also quite processional at times
I've seen some Supercars races that I really enjoyed, and also love Mt. Panorama Circuit (always a go-to for me in any racing games!) What you said about budgets is unfortunate but seems to be true for just about every motorsport. Here in the states, there's maybe 4 or 5 NASCAR Cup teams that have the ability to win (due to their large budgets) and the rest are just hoping to finish top 20. Thanks for watching!
I live in Indianapolis, so Indycar, NASCAR, and MotoGP were always the dominant racing series people payed attention to around me. Once I found out about F1, I neglected Indycar and NASCAR. Thanks to being a Ferrari fan, though, I’ve recently rejoined the Indycar fanbase and I honestly look forward to watching Indycar races more than the F1 races on most weekends. Additionally, Indycar is insanely more accessible than F1 as far as attending races. You can go watch an exciting race at a bunch of tracks across the country for a mere fraction of the price of an F1 race.
>Thanks to being a Ferrari fan
Don't-- don't leave F1 just because of Ferrari master🅱️lan. Laugh at it, in fact.
I hear many F1 fans say that oval racing is easy AF, you have infinite space to avoid crashing, but far from the truth. Oval Racing is hard AF, and driving on an oval with an 800 Horsepower brick is gruelling. And let's not forget the plethora of amazing racetracks they drive in, NASCAR outside of the Americas is overhated and underrated.
Agreed!
Agreed.
and... HE! IS! THE PAINKILLER!!
formula 2 has always interested me because the racing is close and its great to see the next young talent making it up the ranks.
Been into F1 for as long as I can remember, as well as MotoGP and rallying. Lately I've diversified a lot since I really got into Nascar in 2017, then Indycar etc. I still love F1 but the current fan atmosphere is really terrible and I don't engage as much in it beyond raceday.
Every day I love sportscar racing more and more (WEC, IMSA, BTCC, V8 Supercars, SuperGT, you name it) and it's quickly becoming one of my favorite types of racing if not my favorite. Cars you can actually tell apart beyond the livery, generally good racing, much less annoying, tribalist fans compared to other motorsports... still, if it has wheels, it's cool.
Thanks for the comment! I've been getting into sports car racing myself more and more for those same reasons.
Coming from Finland, F1 and rally are of course the two of my favorite forms of motorsport. Here most of the media coverage is centered around those two thanks to the success of Finnish drivers in both disciplines. And with rally it definitely helps that we have tons of silent gravel roads where young people can drive their cars (sometimes even over the speed limit) and hone their skills, which makes the sport quite accessible even if you're not wealthy.
I think it's great how accessible Rally is in Finland! Here in America, a lot of people live where the roads only go straight and flat. I'm fortunate enough to have some twisty roads near me to enjoy 🙂
I remember watching the Grand Tour episode where they talk about Finland having the most car accidents out of any nation, despite having one of the most strict driving tests in the world. As an American who watches and searches for endless motorsports, my defense for the Finnish is I don't believe a lot of those car accidents were neccesarily... accidents. Like sure, they don't mean to crash but they certainly mean to release their inner-Marcus Gronholm and bolt through the Finnish backroads in their Peugeots and Volvos, going 130kph before ending upside down in a ditch. Those stats are skewed. Lol
@@lorddrac_dontaskmetodance I can see myself in this. Despite not having any big accidents (once clipped a sidewalk that bounced me into a ditch at a slow speed during winter) I know that many do drive over the speed limit, especially on roads they know. Someone I know had a crash at the road her grandmother lived because she knew the road and always drove way over the limit, until a car appeared behind a crest and she had to take avoiding action. I know for certain I drive way too fast on roads leading to my own grandparents in the countryside because I know the roads quite well, and even then my dad is even faster. But then again, I also know I'm in a different situation to most, where my parents have been heavily involved with the local motorsports club for decades and those roads I said go to my grandparents have been used in the Finnish Rally Championship years ago
Also to you I would add that we have folk racing (jokamiesluokka) where drivers get a starter level cars (I think the price that they have to be sold in races is around 1k) and anyone basically can buy a car and just have a go
The WRC deserves countless times more media coverage than it gets.
My favorite series is well WAS DTM I stumbled upon it in 2018 and was and still am a super fan of Rene Rast a fellow German. But now that they changed the rules its not as enjoyable to I mainly was f1/indy and endurance racing.
I should spend some time watching DTM!
favourite racing series is definitely IndyCar, got into it about a year or two ago when Stan sports became a thing and picked up IndyCar as i heard Scott McLaughlin was in the series. McLaughlin being one of my favourite drivers in the V8s i wanted to watch it so i watched a few races and got hooked
Something else is NHRA or dirt series like World of outlaws ( Sprint cars and late models). Seeing those cars full throttle inches from each other fighting for position is great. I love all them especially nascar and even two wheel racing like Supercross, MotoGP and Flat track
I'd recommend watching the IMSA spec Porsche Cup and Miata series over all other current motorsports. Lots of great on-track action with contacting racing and respect among drivers on tracks that the FIA would never allow to be built nowadays.
Love the MX-5 series myself!
Oklahoma born and raised. I fell in love with rally racing when my dad bought me dirt for the original Xbox. Since than it has by far been my most favored sport. Even at 24 I still hope one day I can get on a real track. The closest thing I can think of to rally racing here in the US, that has a decent amount of spectators is Pikes Peak. Still, it is a sport that will go under appreciated but will always be in our hearts 💕
Race in peace, Colin 🚙💨
Thanks for the comment! Admittedly, I first got into Rally after playing DiRT 2, so similar story there. Pikes Peak is on my bucket list to check out someday for sure!
I'm from Spain, more specifically from Galicia, the epicenter of rally racing in the country, and obviously my favourite discipline. Watch some daily cars like the Skoda Fabia, Citroën C3, Peugeot 208, Hyundai i20, Ford Fiesta or the Toyota Yaris converted into absolutely monsters is something that fascinates me (the "Win on Sunday, sell on Monday" philosophy), and you can go to a stage and watch them passing near you for free, no ticket entries. I know that rally is not mainstream like F1 and is more an european thing, but it's a shame that US don't have a good coverage of WRC at least, because is something that worth to watch.
That's awesome that you can just go out there without a ticket for free! And yes, I'd love to see the U.S. get better WRC coverage (as far as getting it on some major tv networks)
The elefant in the room here is definetly GT3 racing. Feels like every country that has more than two racetracks has its own GT3 championship...sometimes even severall. Then you can also look in the smaller niches of racing: Rally Raid, Truck Racing, Stadium Supertrucks....if there is something with an engine and wheels on it, somebody is likely racing it.
Agreed! Like I talked about in the video with road racing, it always amazes me how many different championships and series there are which can be both a good and bad thing. Some of those smaller niches are very underrated too! Thanks for watching!
Yeah, the good thing from these global formulae (GT3, GT4, TCR) is that the same car can race pretty much anywhere, and even outdated machinery can stay active in local series
Yeah, Love GT3.
Watched the Fanatec series Nurburging 3 hour race today, great race.
The highlight was 24 hours of Spa though.
Plus its free to watch on GTworld channel.
I'm really into Prototypes and F1 since they bring the most innovation to the table, however the racing is just insane in Supercars, FE(had 23 overtakes for the lead in the last event), MotoGP and even the Junior Formulas
Been meaning to get into Formula E more, but I think you've sold me to go watch it with 23 overtakes!
I'm from the US and although I'll always be a nascar fan, imsa is probably my favorite. I love the different manufacturers go head to head at unique road courses, which seems like the polar opposite of nascar, but the environment around nascar for me at a young age I will always appreciate
I completely agree. I grew up in North Carolina, the NASCAR hotbed, but I seriously enjoy IMSA much more this year (and always have liked it). Imo NASCAR has too many kinks and quirks that turn off new fans and veterans alike, but with IMSA it feels like a gladiator match between teams and manufacturers. It feels more organic than the chopped up NASCAR races we have now. It's also easier to defend against haters than the "left turn" sport.
Biggest issue for Indycar is how off and on it's schedule is. Before Mid-May you get several 2 to 3 week breaks between races, then between the first Indy Road Course race until September the series pounds out races, and then vanishes into the ether mid-September (because of a justified fear of being made irrelevant by US Football).
Seems a bit...odd...to lump Multi-class/Endurance racing like WEC with the likes of touring car series. Maybe that's just a me thing, I really don't have much investment in anything that's not the Hypercar/Prototype and LMP2 classes in those series.
As someone who got into Rallying really big between 2016 and 2018 before falling out of it, my biggest issue was just how impractical and hard it was to watch it like an actual event. You'll have things like the officials youtube channel or RedBullTV which can give decent summaries, but only special stages and maybe one more stage gets proper 'live' coverage, so it feels like watching only the fourth and final innings of a baseball game while some randos give you a quick summary of what's happened in all the other innings. It's just really not practical to 'watch'. But to study/read about? It's fantastic.
Also shoutout to Formula E. While I do think most of it's popularity is artificial and terraformed, if you want a series that's not afraid of gimmicks and contact while being way shorter then a NASCAR race, it's a good way to go.
Formula E is worth adding to the ranks, especially now that the popularity contest of Fanboost is gone. The new cars especially evoke the same small-car open wheel feeling that F1 did a long, long time ago, but there are some pretty big issues still plaguing the sport, like bad marshall standards and a tendency to keep old, boring street courses on the calender even as they transition to including proper racetracks as well (looking at you, Berlin airport track)
I hadn't realized they ditched the "fanboost" thing until I started reading some of these comments. Honestly, that was one of the things keeping me away from it.
NASCAR's stage racing is awesome btw. They give points out at the end of each stage which encourages drivers to run good throughout the race instead of just worrying about the finish.
That's how I feel about it. Keep the points, but maybe not the cautions.
It's a good idea in concept but it's kind of lame in execution
I love all, but my favourite does rotate year on year being from Uk nascar always intrigued me and I got hooked then after watching 2 full seasons just got fed up with all gimmicks. Now I’m full swing into Wec/Endurance racing I feel the level of drivers in pro entries are amazing.
Agreed on both points! As an American I grew up watching Nascar, but it has unfortunately gone downhill regulation wise. Unlike some people, I really like the current car, but the gimmicks like stage racing, inconsistencies with yellow flags and penalties, and so on get quite tiring.
NASCAR stopped being interesting after 1970. Before that, it really was stock car racing. The car you saw racing at 200 mph on TV was basically the same car you saw in the showroom. Cars were unique and were getting faster and faster until 1970. Nwadays the only thing that's stock about stock cars is the name. And what is a Toyota Camry doing in NASCAR? It's not even a muscle car and no road going versin of it features a v8. And them including more road courses in the callender is what killed it for me. Why? Just go watch GT3
i grew up as a nascar fan, but as i got older i got into other sports. and now my favorite has to be indycar, its like my sweet tooth of motor racing, once it happens its like a treat. its really hard to watch all formula one races since they are so early or late in the day for me so its a real struggle, but i really love open wheel racing. so punishing, and you gotta be smart in order to make your moves
Yes, some of the F1 races are on quite early in the morning for me as well! A struggle for sure.
I’m from the Western USA. I’m an endurance racing fan who tried to get everybody I can on IMSA, 24h, and WEC. Great series where there’s never a dull moment. Ever. Great stuff.
As an American, we really are spoiled for choice when it comes to motorsports. Indycar, NASCAR Cup, WoO Sprint Cars and Late Models, IMSA.
basically agree with everything here. i just try to give all of it a chance. i could say F2 , F3 , moto 2 , moto3 and v8 sup are the most complete. Nascar is way better than we, the non States people think. im from DR.
Coming from Germany, I've become a huge Supercars fan and rewatched older races as they hit their channel. The Gen3 changes leveled the playing field quite a bit and the bigger teams are not as superior as they used to be. It's more about the driver and what they can achieve with the mechanical platform with their engineers. They hit the sweet spot performance wise as well. The cherry on the top is that most of the reporters and commentators are former drivers. Never knew how good that is for the viewing experience until I watched Supercars regularly. DTM should take note…
Both MX-5 and even some Formula E races have tought me that you don't need over the top performance figures and top speeds to create exciting races, espacially MX-5 series is hilarious fun to watch. Spec series are in my opinion required if you want to know who the best driver is. When it comes to engineering prowes, I think GTP/LMDh/Hypercars do a better job than F1, since the multiple drivers setup already de-emphasizes the driver part and make it more about the car and the team as a whole.
As you said, all forms have something to make them worth watching, so go have fun watching them all!
NASCAR moving away from its "redneck stereotype" is the worst thing that ever happened to the sport. Just look at the modern ratings and revenue
Nascar is trying to be like Australian supercars
I'm from Hungary and a F1 fan since I was 5, so obviously that is my favorite series, however, I love motorsports in general. I always try to watch Formula 2 and 3, and it's easier because they start before F1 events. Furthermore, I try to watch IndyCar and sometimes Nascar, but they start very late for me and I usually stuck with the highlights. If I have time, I try to watch WRC and MotoGP too. If there are 24h races I usually follow them as well, like this and last year the Daytona, Le Mans, Nürburgring and Spa. Almost forgot, I watch WTCR (previously WTCC) since I dunno, 2010-2011, but sadly It looks like it will be rebranded as an entirely different series this year.
In short, I love all kinds of racing.
Great! I have the opposite problem, haha F1 starts very early in the morning for me which can make it hard to watch live. I wasn't familiar with WTCR so you've given me a new series to watch. Thanks for the comment!
I think most of the “division” you speak about comes from F1 fans who think they hold a level of eliteness. Most other motorsport fans respect and enjoy a bunch of different types of racing
Currently, my biggest draw-ins are resemblance to road cars, variety of brands, shapes and challenges (why not?), and, of course, competitiveness. I love technical development, but more in the sense of taking an everyday commuter and making it go fast. I usually watch for the cars first. This is how touring cars, hillclimbs, rallying, drifting and drag racing stick out to me, but I just get excited about motorsports in general.
Americans and Aussies both have dirt oval racing, its all the insane car control, engineering and racing on tiny dirt ovals dotted around the US, its available basically everywhere here, its amazing
I fell in love with NASCAR during the pandemic, and that passion for the sport carried over the Indycar, which are pretty much the only two motorsports i pay super close attention to, although i do enjoy the odd IMSA race from time to time. They just have what in my opinion is the most fun and best racing to watch week to week and the crown jewl races are American staples every year, the Daytona 500 and Indy 500 are America's greatest gifts to motor racing imo.
I've always hated F1 mostly due to the fans, I've warmed up more to it recently cause of the drivers, but my experience with F1 fans has always been very elitist and snobbish when in a lot of ways, F1 has some of the worst racing in motorsports, especially with Max V being so dominant these days (no disrespect to him but it gets boring watching the same 2 or 3 dudes win every GP i watch based seemingly on who gets the pole that week). I respect people who enjoy it but i wish so many of them wouldn't bash NASCAR and other motorsports for not being exactly like F1.
I think you hit the nail on the head with the last sentence. I have friends who enjoy F1 who won't even give NASCAR or IndyCar a shot because "they're redneck" or "they're worse than F1". I don't want to group all F1 fans into the same category, but I'd say the few fans who actively tear down other motorsports aren't real racing fans themselves.
yeah, F1 fans do suck. Like a lot, especially since the racing isn't even all that great, this is coming from an F1 fan. The Lewis fanbase and Max fanbase will get really toxic, not even a might, it's almost inevitable. In terms of racing it would probably be NASCAR or Indy first, then the other motorsports. Out of all of them F1 sucks the most, idk what it is but I like it. Probably because I'm a RedBull fan and they're winning😂
im from argentina and my favorite series is all endurance racing in general , i love see the teams evolve in the middle of the race , i watch a lot of argentinian motorsport like Turismo Carretera (from where canapino drived ) , tc2000 , turismo nacional , etc
but i think my fav is the imsa , is like the wec but well made.
I really enjoy IMSA also!
aguante el tc locoooo
@@juanmaagonz eaea
From a Brazilian neighbor, Turismo Nacional is amazing, and Canapino to IndyCar is one of the most exciting to follow moves I've seen so far.
@@edugj23 i watch a lot brazil stock car , is very cool and probably i gonne be if they race in buenos aires this year again. the only thing i dont understand from brasil is that weird nascar series , i dont get it but... if it works i think its ok.
I honestly can’t even say there’s a bad Motorsport I love them all, from Imsa to f1; rally to Supercross it’s all fantastic
Drag racing sucks. Yeah I get it, it's loud 10,000 horsepower blah blah blah. The novelty of that wears off pretty quick and your left watching the same 4 second race down a straight line over and over. It's terrible.
@bradsanders407 I'm not a drag racing fan, bit I'd imagine the appeal is way more about the engineering then the actual race
I'm Peruvian, here in the continent we don't have that much of a space for racing since we're mostly focused on getting out of the "third world country" bracket and due to that, Motorsports kinda falls off, but recently it started to become something.
In Perú we have the CCTC (Circuit Championship Touring Competition) and it's ok. Here at least a new wave of Formula 1 fans has emerged after Netlifx's DTS series. From around 500K Peruvian viewers in 2020 we jumped to +1.25M for the 2021 Season after all the LH44 vs MV33 Season battle for the ages. Indeed it's becoming more popular, but also it's still a long way to go before something big gets done here to boost viewership.
Now me, I'm a huge Endurance Racing fan. IMSA, WEC, GTWC you name it, I watch it. The aspect of strategy across a long race which is not defined only by who has the best machine but rather the best squad, consistency and mind in the game is absolutely brutal personally speaking. I'm also into Indycar and F1, but F1 has been dying off for me a tad since they are going too far away from what made the series the most prestigious on the planet and going more for the show rather than focusing on improving the product.
That's my take.
Interesting to read, thank you for sharing! It is quite impressive what the DTS series did for bringing in new fans. And yes, strategy is one of the best parts of endurance racing!
There's still so many to cover from dirt track ovals to trophy trucks and things like Dakar I think we need a 2nd part.
Exactly! Stadium short course, to the Baja races!
There's a lot of comments like this! Maybe I'll try and put one together specifically focusing on off-road disciplines, although there's so many different kinds of dirt oval cars, that could even be its own video!
i like all of these racing series, im from canada so we get more nascar type stuff here
nascar and indycar are probably my favourites but i still like all
also i like how indycar kinda takes a bit from both nascar and f1 at the same time
Hey man great video! I know I am 2 months late, but I wanted to say it anyways.
I'm from Australia but my background is Nigeria, and I am a big fan of NASCAR
I also recently started following F1 and WEC, and even started doing Go Karting for fun
Honestly it is tiring when people keep on stereotyping NASCAR as just "racing in circles" when it has its own type of racing. At least you brought this up to 7.3K current viewers. Thank's for a good video man, definitely excited to see what else you got.
I appreciate that a lot, thank you! Go karting is great fun, glad you've been able to get into that!
@@themotorsportstory thanks man. Great video.
I’ve been a huge F1 fan my entire life (also other motorsports but primarily F1) and the elitism and gatekeeping of F1 fans is so annoying
That's what honestly made it hard for me to get into early on. People are people and I won't group all F1 fans into that category, but there's certainly some of them that can be off-putting towards new fans.
I'm from PH and a fan of WRC and Rally Cross, when I found it when i was like 10 yrs old, I fell in love with it instantly and became a fan, even considering becoming one but I have no balls to commit.
When speed was around and they had recaps of WRC events, it really peaked my interest in the sport. I wish we had that still. I feel like the WRC are really missing out by not having similar recaps on their RUclips channel. I believe you could really grab attention by doing full recap of events.
I agree!
Attending in person has got to be NHRA Drag Racing. There isn’t anything quite like 11,000 HP race cars. It’s definitely a snooze watching it on TV though, which is why IndyCar is my favorite to follow along with.
It killed me how much COTA (my home track) was in this video for NASCAR I saw both Next Gen races here and they were great
Must have been awesome to see them run there! I have yet to make it out to a NASCAR road course race. Been to plenty of ovals, but no road courses yet :)
Eh, I'm not a big fan of any Racing that you go slow enough to turn Left, or Right! You left out all the NHRA/ANDRA Drag racers!
Fair enough haha! I'm not that into drag racing myself, but I can 100% respect the skill and effort in both driving and building the cars.
I'm from Brazil, was born after Senna's death and grown up (trying to) cheer Rubens Barrichello, then the sport died here and I just started to follow it again in 2018 (before DTS btw) and got hooked ever since, but in 2021 I discovered Indycar and it was love at first sight, it has actually surpassed F1 for me now, great racing, the 2021 Indy 500 was the best experience watching a racing series I've ever had, obviously because a brazillian driver won it, but the racing was amazing either way
Agreed! IndyCar racing is severely underrated!
Great video 👍 as an F1 fan since the early 2000's I always find other forms of racing to get my fix when there is no F1 on a particular weekend
I've been following both Nascar and Indycar especially since Grosjean moved over to Indy but I must admit I find myself only watching the road or street courses because I just can't understand the whole oval circuits and watching cars turn left the entire time 😅
I can fully appreciate the skill and courage required to race on ovals though.
The more I get into racing the more I think Indycar is so underrated
When the Speed Channel existed. I watched everything.
From Outlaws, Dirt, Hooters, Arca, demolition derbies, school bus racing, Australian Supercars, etc
But I really love NASCAR. I got into it at the start of 2004. I would watch all 3 series qualifying and race series on weekends. I get up at 8am MT to watch all the pre-race discussions, and then the race starts at noon (I can not remember being too long since I watched a race). I stopped watching in 2013.
Got too "corporate."
Jeff Gordon was my favorite
Nice insight on every major racing series.
As a Bangladeshi 🇧🇩, motorsport culture isn't big here. It has very niche fandom (we have Avik Anwar who races in UAE 🇦🇪 organized races), perceived to be a rich man's sport because of it's barrier to entry involving a vehicle. From 20 years ago, I have casually watched almost all the racing series you mentioned here except the Mazda series maybe.
Been watching Formula E since around 2015, awaiting this series to become the pinnacle because FE is great to watch from an Engineering perspective.
I would argue that NASCAR has the most diverse schedule. Street courses, road courses, dirt oval, short track oval, intermediate oval, and superspeedways.
@@jordanfires9777 oh yeah 🤣🤣
Fair argument, I agree :) Chicago Street Course scare me a little in terms of how well it will race, but we can only hope it works out!
Im brazilian and I think you can guess what my favourite type of racing is, by my profile pic. Sportscar and Endurance racing tho is a very close 2nd place, then comes motorcycle racing, which is just absolutely wild, the purest form of motorsport where the human is most connected to the machine and Indycar. The list of the series I most enjoy would be:
1 - WRC
2 - IMSA
3 - WEC
4 - MotoGP
5 - Indycar
Then theres other racing series like Stock Car Brasil, Nascar, GT World Challenge, WorldSBK, Touring Cars, MotoAmerica, love all of them too
an interesting motorsport thats still around is Trials.
This was essentially the origins of rally special stages, which combined with the long road rallies of the time with long routes and co-drivers/navigators to make modern rally series. Essentially trials is a sport where you either win or lose, there is no ranking, and you win by simply making it to your destination.
Normal cars
2 wheel drive
normal road tyres
all on some of the most difficult offroad terrain imaginable without needing special suspension and massive wheels.
Trials is still very popular in motorcycle racing, where the rules are "dont put your feet down" while the rider clambers over ridiculous boulders and hopping from fallen trees, but car trials are still held in britain as they have done for over 100 years. its very entertaining to see the likes of the suzuki X90 and mk3 toyota mr2 "racing" with modified cars from the 1920s that are still going, all with cars like the classic beetle and triumph TR7 running with them.
That's really interesting! I've seen plenty of motorcycle trials videos, but wasn't actually aware they had it for cars as well. I've got something new to look up, thank you!
Italy here. WRC used to be super exciting, especially Group B, Group A, and 1999 to 2006. The best eras. And we had great champions (Gigi Galli, Biasion anyone??)and races here in Italy, but now it's really a poor series, sadly, mainly for budget reasons, nobody can afford some Rally1 cars (so the regulation does not allow them in tha main championship), so now we have rallies full of... well, the monster Fabia r5
ally2. Quite boring honestly. At least we have Rally Legend which is a MONSTROUS exciting rally event. Then , I really love GT3, but we miss manifacturer here, compared to some yars ago ( with Nissan GTR, Bentley, etcetera). But, the best motorsport to see in Italy now, to me, it's TIME ATTACK and trackdays (follow Davide Cironi). Pure passion, lot of incredible tuning, and most of all a really genuine atmosphere, both in the racetrack, tha paddocks, and in the spectator park, where you can look to great cars, talk friendly to people, and eat great food in some occasions.
To me. my country has some sparks ( alfa Giulia, Abarth 500 ( NOT ELECTRIC), and Ferrari of course), but has lost its soul in the istant classics small cars like Uno Turbo, Coupè 20 valves Turbo, Punto Abarth, Punto GT generation, Alfa 147 GTA, LANCIA DELTA EVO, and so on....
I love everything racing. I’m from Illinois in the states and here dirt oval racing is huge. World of Outlaws and Dirt car is king. Late models, sprint cars, modifieds, and midgets are extremely popular. Flat track motorcycle racing is also popular.
As a nascar fan I can say that the playoffs are pretty dumb and almost every fan hates it.
Also I like stages but I don’t think they should stop the race, just let the drivers get their points but let them keep on racing.
Edit: To add on to some of my favorite racing series, you missed out on all the local styles of racing here in the US. Since I live near a dirt track, I absolutely love seeing dirt late models flying around a bullring and I think it is really exciting.
@@jordanfires9777 the playoffs make it entertaining but also make it to where the deserving driver usually doesn’t win
Yeah, I'm a little split on it myself. I can understand why they do it, but I think I'd like to see it go away.
Argentina here. We have the oldest league in motorsports... its call TC or Turismo Carretera. Its first championship was held in 1937 and the cars and competition evolved into what we have now. They first used coupes, ford, chevrolet, dodge. Races were like dirt rally, from point A to point B and also few laps around HUGE rural/main roads closed for the event. On mid to late 60's they swap the old coupes for modern production cars like IKA Torino, Ford Falcon, Chevrolet Nova, Dodge Polara/Coronado. They still raced on public roads and tracks... until mid 90's with the same cars, but heavily modified. Now they only race in tracks, and cars are prototypes shaped as those 70's ones, with spoilers, sidepods and weird bonnets. Its still one of the most popular motorsports in South America. Drivers like Juan Manuel Fangio (5 times F1 champ), José Froilán González (First winner ever for Ferrari in F1), Carlos Reutemann (He lost the F1 championship by 1 point in early 80's) and José María Lopez (24h of Le Mans winner, WEC Champ and 3 times Champ of WTCR), to name a few, have raced in TC.
I’m from the UK - I partially grew up watching F1 (because of my dad, who’s now lost interest), and I’ve recently started getting into IndyCar - I think both series have their pros and cons, but they’re both entertaining to me.
Watch Indycar!!!! love Indycar so much. Racing is almost always great, the field is the deepest and largest it’s been in years. I just wish the series had more fans to inspire more races and discourse-if you’re a motorsports fan, watch Indycar in May/June. You likely won’t be disappointed. As far as other series, The summation of F1 was pretty good, but the part I feel was left out is the dramatic aspect of manufacturer vs. manufacturer, country vs. country, team vs. team, and driver vs. driver. From an American’s POV, it just FEELS European-not a bad thing, but foreign and full of elitist sentiment. NASCAR hasn’t been the same in a while… less marketable drivers, weird schedule, cars aren’t even stock, bad rule changes, stages, and a joke of a points system. Road racing (IMSA fan) is fantastic, but could use more exposure even in the world of motorsports. As for rally… maybe I’ll give it a try.
Personally I like every series, I grew up watching Nascar and F1 back in 2010-2013. I moved to Rally and RX as my focus during 2014-2015 and rn I mostly watch F1 and Indy with sum important races of other series as my must watch (Le Mans, Bathurst 1000 or Daytona 500 for example) and if i have free time I watch sum drift series or Super GT. I'm also entering MotoGP as a regular watcher for the first time in my short 19yo and I rlly like it and i even had the chance to be in the local pro kart scene of my country (Perú) for a few years. Motorsport ia so rich and there literally something for everyone. I think the top 2 japan racing series and the Australian racing series are very underrated cause they give a lot of show everytime. Also RX is too underrated casue that is wild af. I feel that for people that are fans of cars like purists and love super close racing with less politics into it like the 90s stuff yall should try series like that which live out of the media focus or also watch feder series for the biggest series too
Floridaman here. Live about just over an hour drive away from Daytona. I'm just a petrolhead. Whether it is road course racing or oval, I'll go watch it. People watching the different crowds that show up is cool too. I've been to a dozen or so nascar tracks, the rolex 24hr, and even made a stop in Perth Australia for a V8 supercar weekend. It's all good for me. Only problem,for me, is that formula 1 ticket prices are way to expensive. Miami grand prix tickets were almost 2k per seat.
From what I see in my social circles, there will always be people that will egg on others for the motorsports they like just for attention or to belittle others. My perspective as a life long NASCAR fan usually saw people who watch F1 and WRC do this a little more, but I am aware that this can apply to anybody from any fanbase - that point you mentioned about "being conditioned to a certain style of racing" outlines that well to add to that. That's at least where I think a big source of division comes from.
Thanks to some neat individuals, I've been starting to follow IMSA and Indycar a little more now, and I'm greatly enjoying it! Though despite all the rule changes and landscape shifting, I feel NASCAR will always be apart of me in some way.
This was a great watch! We honestly need more people like you who strive to try and bring others together. Greetings from Canada!
F1 has become boring in a sense that how a single team is to dominate the whole season.
Using Red Bull as an example. The FIA imposed cost caps, but it's evident that Red Bull has exceeded their cost cap by extra performance of their cars. So they have to be cheating. And yet the FIA does nothing effective about it. The cost caps were supposed to create a parity between the cars, and make it more about the drivers. But that never seems to work. Some team will always find a way to cheat. It was boring to me when Mercedes was dominating the field.
And now my personal opinion. I do not like the Red Bull. More specifically, I do not like the Red Bull brand. It's mostly all the stunts that are done under Red Bull funding. All of these stunts are extremely dangerous, and I am just waiting for a Red Bull sponsored stunt to end up killing somebody. All the stunts are superfluous, and are performed only to promote the Red Bull brand.
I wanted to get into NASCAR but they're stupid points system, the playoffs and the way they always try to keep everyone in a pack. Just makes it all feel unauthentic.
We need a new family running NASCAR.
began watching nascar in 2004 & am in my 18th season of watching the sport. i didn't branch out into other forms of motorsport until the early-mid 2010s but it wasn't until 2019 that it completely fleshed out.
nascar, f1, & indycar are the ones i watch the most & give the most attention to. that being said, i've begun to pay attention to aussie supercars & wec a hell of a lot more. imsa is in a category of its own between those parties.
when it comes to the best racing, it's incredibly difficult to compare. nascar, indy, imsa, wec, supercars, all have decent (on avg.) on-track products at the least. f1 lags behind but makes up for it in spectacle & technicality, although it has produced some incredible races in the 10 seasons i've watched dating back to 2014.
*i do want to preface this by saying i believe f1 is a racing series first & that the engineering and drama play supporting roles, albeit strong ones
motorsport is something that i devote myself towards, as a us citizen i don't pay attention to stick-and-ball on a weekly basis other than the nfl but even then racing takes priority. it's just the passion i have for it. it's my life and one day i want to participate in these events as a driver, i don't know where i'd be today without the sport.
Have watched all type of racing & Indy Car for me has it all. Open wheel, amazing sound, great tracks & the unpredictability is what makes it the best series out there.
I prefer old motorsport in general, like older Sports prototype racing such as Le mans, old style f1 and grand prix, also the absolutely bonkers cars of the 60s and 70s Can-Am.
No NHRA? Dafuq? There is nothing more diverse than drag racing. Sure, the course never changes, but the cars sure do. And nothing else in motorsports comes close to matching the visceral impact of being near the starting line when two Top Fuel rails punch the throttle. It's also the most open, family-oriented motorsport. Literally every ticket is a pit pass that lets you walk around and watch the crews work on their cars between rounds.
American here. I grew up starting with F1 and moving to other sports, never really got into NASCAR or Indycar, but more into rally and GT racing. Would be a dream to participate in either one someday.
I've been a long F1 fan for like a decade now. Started watching indycar 3 years ago. And today I prefer Indycar races over F1. Though I'm always interested in what the F1 teams can find in upgrades every weekend
Aussie here of course love the supercars go to the Bathurst 1000 every year.
Also like the WEC going to Le Mans this year cant wait
But to me most exciting racing are sprintcars & speedcars
Great video by the way
I'm from México and i've been going to rally since 2011, best Motorsports ever, you get a lot of action if you get a nice spot, free to watch most of the times, great environments, you get to know the cars, drivers and teams so close that seems unreal. Also seeing a rally car in the street going to the stage is freaking awesome. Plus you get a full week of racing if you count the Mondays test, the recce and shakedown.
I'm very new to motorsport and so far i like Rally stuff with all this intense driving and i also like diverse cars, thats why Nascar doesnt seem like something i would watch and F1 so far seemed to be really uniform with the cars as well, maybe thats just me being uninformed.
There aren't any motors involved, but downhill barbie jeep racing is hard to beat
Can't believe I forgot the most intense type of racing of all time haha!
I’m a Brit who’s loved F1 for most of my life, and yet a couple years ago I discovered Indycar and can honestly say I enjoy that series so much more than F1 now. It’s such a fantastic spectacle and every race throws up something different
Love British Touring cars for the racing and grew up a massive rally fan. But motorcycle racing is my number love, any two wheel racing is exciting.
Grew up watching nascar, and Indy. my neighbor was a big f1 fan so i found that from him but i didn't follow every race until around 2015. my favorite series is probably IMSA. I've been to the races at Road America the last 2 years and its great. i love multi class racing, it produces a lot of overtaking which is what i enjoy.
The closest things that are popular in the states that are kind of like Rally would be stuff like Pikes Peak hill climb or the Baja 1000.
I love this content. United all motorsport communities!!! As an American, I’ll meet nascar fans and I’ll meet f1 fans but it’s so rare to find a motorsport fan as a whole like myself
Never been too fond of Formula for the exact reasons you've mentioned, it's too damn engineered. The drivers have machines I'll never imagine being able to drive, and corner capability that puts me to sleep with how effective it is. NASCAR I couldn't care less about, I'm not from the US. Rally is king for me, just pure automotive PAIN. Cars break, drivers fail, the track is your greatest rival. Watched a rally back in my homeland, incredible stuff although it was just one or two cars passing every couple of minutes. I loved it. One guy ended up uninjured pulling his car out of a lake, another's Ford Focus had a good 2.6m drop of the side of the road, rolled about 6 times. EVERYBODY cheered. Best thing we had seen all day. Nobody was hurt thank God, maybe the drivers ego. Even had a modified LADA with original suspension, damn thing turned into a SWING on a corner. Had some GAZ trucks racing too, all modified V8s. 2 of them didn't survive the first race. Absolute insanity in Rally, I love it.
Sounds like a great event you went to! I'll make it out to watch a rally someday!
I think that gt world challange (previously Blancpain gt challange) is extremally underrated as a "league"
Nascar is my favorite, then indy car.. but you also got give dirt racing some love world of outlaws, sprint car, midgets, etc
Im from Finland and its not even hard to quess which is my fav by that.
My problem is they keep changing the streaming channel on all sports. I was just getting back into Indy and they changed to a streaming channel I dodn't have. So I don't watch it anymore.
Another point is I am invested in some sports through having a great general knowledge of their drivers, teams, and history. I don't watch some (even when they have great racing) simply because I don't care about any of the teams or drivers.
Those are both really good points. Network agreements can really ruin the reach of some series. And to your other point, it's certainly easier to get invested in a racing series when you follow/care about the outcomes for a specific team or driver. Thanks for watching!
Honestly motocross and supercross are the most exciting motorsports at the moment. Bar to bar action and there are just more techniques to get a dirt bike to go faster than a car it’s more dependent on rider skill
Okay, second comment:
I appreciate what you're doing here, and you've earned my subscription to the channel! I'm a racing/motorsports enthusiast, so any kind of speed-over-distance competition interests me.
I've been watching F1 steadily for about 10 years now. It can get tiresome seeing the same 3 manufacturers at the top, and seeing one team dominate most of the season. But the beauty in F1 comes mid-pack. Those teams who are fighting to be in the points. I do love seeing the fights for the win (when they happen), but the best action isn't usually up front.
I've watched NASCAR for nearly 30 years. I even own a number of NASCAR racing simulators, and got my first one at 8 years old. The appeal of NASCAR is definitely the close quarters racing and the variety in possible race winners. I doubt any other racing series can boast the number of race winners NASCAR can (partly because of the 36-race schedule), and it's neat because, especially now, nearly any car on the track has a shot at a victory.
Indycar I've watched for almost as long as NASCAR. My introduction to open-wheel racing came from Indycar, and now that I've become a bit of a motorsports historian, it's cool learning how many drivers (and even teams) have gone back and forth from Indycar to F1. Plus there's no oval racing more exciting than these things sustaining 210 side by side. Heart-in-your-throat racing.
I've gotten more into road racing recently, but I watch races from IMSA, WEC, Supercars, MX-5 Cup (probably my favorite), etc.
WRC and other rally events I probably watch the least, but I have great appreciation for that form of motorsport. In all honesty, rally drivers are the best drivers on the planet, bar none. They're also the most insane. Because a wrong move isn't just contact with the barrier. It could mean flipping into a forest, through someone's house, or off the side of a mountain.
I can't wait to see more of your content! As I mentioned in my last comment, I'm also a fan of drag racing, but there's also dirt track racing, short track racing, motorcycle sprint track racing, MotoGP and World Superbike, Motorcross, boat racing, drag boat racing... there's so much motorsport out there, I'm interested in seeing what topics you bring up!
Thanks for sharing all of that and the subscription! Love hearing about peoples' experiences and what lead to their enthusiasm for each kind of motorsport. And I'm with you on the simracing side, I always have the most fun driving NASCAR cars!
So long as it goes quickly and makes noise while doing it. I'll watch it
Rallycross and Rally Raid (Dakar & Baja)?
MotoGP???
Love all of those too! Was just focusing on the series that are more popular/well-known for this video.
Well then as a stand alone question how would you rate those 3 in terms of their Pros and Cons?
I’m from the United States. I’ve been watching NASCAR since I was in diapers(according to my mom) I got into F1 and Indycar in 2010. F1 really caught my attention because it was nothing like I had ever seen before, from the sounds to the stage. And with Indycar, I loved the close battles and stuff. Occasionally I’ll watch endurance and rally. But my big 3 are nascar, Indy, and F1. I’m 19 btw
you forgot formula e and their god awful fan boost system
😂 Some things are best forgotten about, although I've heard that they've gotten rid of the fan boost recently
Good video but are we completely omitting 2 wheeled racing? Do they not have motors? Are they not categorised as "motorsport"? Motogp is arguably one of the best racing series where you can find almost all of what you explained. Insanely fast machines, very skilled riders and some extremely close racing for example.
Definitely not taking anything away from Motogp, I just decided to focus on four-wheeled series for this video.
What's sad about a lot of these series is they can be really hard to watch in North America. It's improving with the whole "Post the race on RUclips a week later" thing but before the last couple of years? Your main, options usually were:
1. Pay a bunch extra for a big package of TV channels, only to care about 2 of them. If you have TV at all.
2. Pay for an expensive subscription service to watch a season, only to find out the service is dreadful in some way, on top of the fact that you probably have to spend more on another big subscription, to watch a second series.
3. Highlights. A quick summary for those who missed half a race? Fine, I guess. But when you have hours of content you could've watched and got a 2 and a half minute recap, it gets painful after a while.
Again, glad things are picking up, but for a long while it got pretty terrible... RIP Speed Channel.
RIP Speed for sure. I remember ESPN even having a lot more racing coverage than they do now. You brought up a big issue for sure. Can't get new fans into your sport if they can't even access it.
For the past over a decade now my favourite category of racing has to be anything with a GT3 category. Any manufacturer worth their salt has a GT3 model. The racing is pretty much always close, whether its a 40 minute sprint or a 24 hour endurance, and there are races of almost any length in between to suit any attention span.
The class has been adopted globally, regionally and nationally so anyone anywhere can find a series and watch a race on a whole variety of circuits from every corner of the planet.
But the best thing is that the teams and drivers that run a GT3 car are eligible for any of these races, so you see the same teams and drivers popping up all over the world to compete in these different races.
Even when the class isnt the main event such as the GTD class in IMSA, its always where a lot of the action can be found. Even the ACO have finally given in and are using it in WEC and Le Mans from 2024.
And its pretty much all free to watch on youtube. IMSA, SRO ('Blancpain'), British/Australian/French/German national GT, GT Open, Creventic 24H series to name but a few.
I love that it's all available here on RUclips. Really makes it accessible to new fans.
In 2021 i used to watch F1 a lot,but in 2022 i got bored of dominating one driver and decided to try look for Nascar, and its just happened that Cup series was racing at COTA, long story short, i can miss 1-2 races of F1, but i gotta watch at least 2 stages of Cup. Watching 3-rd stage could be hard, cause my time could be at 4 a.m. And I am from Russia
Time difference can make it rough! I have that problem of 4 a.m. for some F1 races here in America haha