NASCAR TV ratings hit new lows in 2018

When cheaters always keep their win, people start switching off the TV

It’s hardly news that NASCAR TV viewership has been in a decade-long slide. What you might not realize is just how bad the ratings got.

Sports Media Watch has the full post mortem on the 2018 NASCAR season that was on TV, and the numbers are sobering, to say the least.

Of the 32 races that were run as scheduled this season, 28 posted a decline in ratings and/or viewership, and 27 hit all-time or decade-plus lows.

Only two races this season had a 3.0 rating, the Daytona 500 (5.3) and Atlanta the following week (3.3). In the final year of the previous TV deal, 2014, 22 races topped the 3.0 mark.

75 percent of the 2018 NASCAR season consisted of races with either their worst ratings ever or the worst in more than 10 years.

If there was a simple fix to falling TV ratings, NASCAR would have already acted on it. The only question now is whether there is a floor or, with the advent of silent electric cars, it go to zero and the sport cease to exist.