NASCAR dominating the sports scene with no live action

In the absence of live action, NASCAR and iRacing are still dominating the esports scene with the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series.

While there hasn’t been any live NASCAR action since Sunday, March 8 when the drivers of the Cup Series competed at Phoenix Raceway, NASCAR and iRacing have teamed up to produce the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.

This virtual racing series has allowed drivers to compete against one another from the comfort of their own homes, while still “driving” stock cars. The races have been broadcast live on Fox, Fox Sports 1 and the Fox Sports app.

Four races have been contested so far, and the series schedule has been modeled after the real-life Cup Series schedule. Each race has been contested at the virtual version of the venue which would have hosted a real race on that given date.

More from NASCAR

• NASCAR Cup Series: New team set to compete in 2024
• NASCAR: Will Kevin Harvick’s major record ever be broken?
• NASCAR: Surprising name continuously linked to new seat
• NASCAR driver at risk of missing the Daytona 500?
• NASCAR set for rare appearance last seen 13 years ago

There was, however, no race at virtual Atlanta Motor Speedway on Sunday, March 15 because the series had not yet been introduced. There have been races contested at virtual Homestead-Miami Speedway, virtual Texas Motor Speedway, virtual Bristol Motor Speedway and virtual Richmond Raceway.

The series had off for Easter, as the real-life Cup Series would have, and two races remain on the schedule, one at virtual Talladega Superspeedway and the other at virtual Dover International Speedway. Due to additional real-life postponements and schedule changes, this schedule could very well be extended.

As has been well-documented, NASCAR and other racing series are at an advantage from a competition standpoint during this pandemic, in that their drivers are still able to compete against one another, doing effectively what they’d be doing in real life: driving race cars.

Meanwhile, the NBA has had to resort to things such as H-O-R-S-E tournaments to keep their athletes competing against one another. While NBA 2K20 tournaments allow them to play virtual games that resemble real NBA games, each player is controlling an entire team, not his own player.

In NASCAR, each driver drives his own car, and they are all competing on the same track at one time, both in real life and in the virtual world. What other sports can offer that kind of virtual competition?

As a result, it is no surprise that NASCAR continues to dwarf the competition in the esports scene.

Sports Business Journal’s Adam Stern reported that while the viewership numbers from this past Sunday’s broadcast of the race at virtual Richmond Raceway did not measure up to the numbers from the broadcast of the previous race at virtual Bristol Motor Speedway, NASCAR iRacing now has the four most viewed esports events on United States television of all-time.

Unsurprisingly, these four races are the four eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series races that have been contested thus far. This coming weekend could very well cement a top five sweep, and next weekend could follow that up by making it a top six sweep.

The next race on the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Invitational Series schedule is set to be simulcast live on Fox, Fox Sports 1 and the Fox Sports app from virtual Talladega Superspeedway this Sunday, April 26 beginning at 1:00 p.m. ET. This race is currently slated to be the penultimate race of this series, so be sure not to miss it.