NASCAR Full Speed: From America To The World

Summary

• NASCAR: Full Speed aims to bring the excitement of NASCAR racing to a global audience, just like Formula 1: Drive to Survive did for Formula 1 in the United States.
• The documentary series offers exclusive behind-the-scenes looks at the lives of NASCAR’s biggest stars, showcasing the teamwork and dedication required for success in the sport.
• NASCAR’s history, dangerous nature, and efforts to expand internationally are explored, highlighting the sport’s appeal and potential for growth around the world.

There is nothing quite as thrilling as dozens of the best drivers, in 750 horsepower machines, roaring around the oval track at 200 miles per hour, trading paint and jockeying for position. By some metrics, NASCAR is the most popular sport in the United States, with bigger TV deals than hockey and more fan attendance than most of the rest of professional sports. If the new Netflix series, NASCAR: Full Speed has anything to do with it, the uniquely American motorsport will conquer the world.

The excellent Netflix documentary series, Formula 1: Drive to Survive focuses on the drivers and races of the FIA Formula One World Championship. Formula 1 racing is much more popular in Europe and most of the rest of the world, so what the series was able to achieve was bring up that level of excitement here in the States. The NASCAR: Full Speed docuseries hopes to return the favor and get other countries as jacked up about NASCAR racing as American fans.

Of course, the new show is also geared to rev the engines of the already passionate NASCAR fans, by giving them exclusive behind-the-scenes looks at their favorite drivers. Taking a checkered flag involves more than just the one who is behind the wheel, as the crew, owners, sponsors and even families contribute to the win. This series takes fans into the cars and lives of some of NASCAR’s biggest stars.

In order to give you the most up-to-date and accurate information possible, the data used to compile this article was sourced from various manufacturer websites and other authoritative sources, including NASCAR, Netflix, and IMDb.

NASCAR: Full Speed

Motorsport’s Ultimate Inside Look

NASCAR: Full Speed will premier on January 30 on the Netflix streaming service. Unlike a lot of streamers who only release one episode a week to string people along, Netflix usually dumps the whole season at once, allowing for some wicked binge-watching.

Netflix is also worldwide, so this show has the potential to reach far beyond the boundaries of the United States and hook an international audience on the most exciting form of professional racing. Car racing has a universal appeal across cultures, and the bare-knuckle brawling style of NASCAR is sure to ignite interest globally.

NASCAR Drivers Appearing in NASCAR: Full Speed

• Danny Hamlin
• Joey Logano
• Bubba Wallace
• Ross Chastain
• Tyler Reddick
• William Byron
• Ryan Blaney

The show itself follows many of today’s top drivers, as IMDb reports, like 2022 NASCAR Cup Series champion, Joey Logano, three-time Daytona 500 winner, Denny Hamlin, and fan-favorite Bubba Wallace.

This is an unfiltered look at all the drama, tension and heartache that goes into putting a winner on the track.

It’s the exhilarating highs and devastating lows in the quest to win a NASCAR Cup Series championship, with some of the most intense racing footage from angles fans rarely get to see. Most of all, it shows the human side of a sport involving powerful machines.

NASCAR Is America’s Sport

From Moonshine to Prime Time

NASCAR’s beginning lies in the moonshine runners of the prohibition era, who souped up their cars to outrun the cops and the revenuers. Once prohibition was lifted, these former bootleggers found they had a taste for speed and wanted a way to prove who had the fastest car. The earliest of these races started in North Carolina and grew to a circuit in the Southern United States.

Daytona Beach was a popular spot for recording land-speed records and, on March 8, 1936, became the location of the first proto-NASCAR race. After going through several names, NASCAR was firmly established in 1948 as the premier stock car racing association in America.

TopSpeed’s Top 5 NASCAR Movies, Ranked

1. Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby
2. Days of Thunder
3. Greased Lightning
4. Stroker Ace
5. Six Pack

NASCAR grew in popularity through the decades, but it was still primarily a regional sport, confined to the South. In 1979, however, CBS started airing races, and suddenly people who didn’t live anywhere near the Telladega Superspeedway in Alabama could watch the thrilling stock car action.

The NASCAR Hall of Fame tells us that the February 18, 1979, Daytona 500 was the first flag-to-flag live national broadcast of a NASCAR race, and that sent the sport’s popularity into the stratosphere. Ever since, NASCAR has permeated popular culture and grown into America’s sport. Now, NASCAR has a TV deal worth $8.2 billion, nearly double that of the NHL, and attracts an average of 48,000 fans per event, which is better than MLB, the NBA, and the NHL.

NASCAR Dangerous

The Sport Of Badasses

In the trailer teaser for NASCAR: Full Speed, the voice-over narration notes the inherent danger of injury and death in professional racing and concludes that it takes a badass to drive in the NASCAR series. This is actually true, because NASCAR has a long history of fatalities in races.

Even with the violent nature of sports like football and hockey, only one player, William Masterton of the Minnesota North Stars, ever died as a result of injuries sustained during a game. NASCAR, on the other hand, has had 28 tragic driver fatalities in races, qualifiers, and practices, and dozens of other deaths involving crew, staff, and even spectators.

Daytona International Speedway Fatalities

• Bill Wade – January 5, 1965 (Testing)
• Tab Prince – February 19, 1970 (Qualifying race)
• Friday Hassler – February 17, 1972 (Qualifying race)
• Ricky Knotts – February 14, 1980 (Qualifying race)
• Bruce Jacobi – February 17, 1983 (Qualifying race)
• Neil Bonnett – February 11, 1994 (Practice)
• Rodney Orr – February 14, 1994 (Practice)
• Dale Earnhardt – February 18, 2001 (Race)

The Daytona International Speedway is by far the deadliest track, with eight driver deaths, including the most recent passing of Dale Earnhardt on the final lap of the Daytona 500 in 2001. Since then, NASCAR racing has gotten much safer with improved car collision features, the HANS head and neck support device, and the Steel And Foam Energy Reduction Barrier soft walls at the tracks.

Thankfully, NASCAR hasn’t recorded a fatality in a race since 2001, but there have been some pretty horrific crashes that have sent cars airborne. The risk associated with racing is part of what makes NASCAR so appealing. Fans aren’t worried that Tiger Woods is going to take a golf ball to the temple at The Masters, but when the cars are packed tight going 200 mph at Daytona, it’s about as intense as it gets.

Bringing NASCAR To The World

Expanding Internationally

NASCAR has made some efforts to expand internationally by including races in both Mexico and Canada. The addition of foreign born drivers like Juan Pablo Montoya, Patrick Carpentier, and Dario Franchitti has also helped raise NASCAR’s profile across the globe.

Maybe the biggest leap towards global domination came in 2006, when Toyota got involved in NASCAR, notching big wins with drivers like Denny Hamlin and Kyle Busch. Foreign automakers such as Porsche and Volkswagen were involved in NASCAR in the early days, but Toyota is the only one in the modern era.

Top 5 Foreign-Born Drivers That Won A NASCAR Race

• Mario Andretti (Italy) – 1967 Daytona 500
• Earl Ross (Canada) – 1974 Martinsville Speedway
• Juan Pablo Montoya (Colombia) – 2007 Sonoma Raceway
• Marcos Ambrose (Australia) – 2011 Watkins Glen International
• Daniel Suarez (Mexico) – 2022 Sonoma Raceway

The First Times Foreign-Built Cars Won A NASCAR Race

• Jaguar – June 13, 1954 (Lindon Airport)
• Toyota – March 9, 2008 (Atlanta Motor Speedway)

While NASCAR’s popularity was on a strong upward trajectory, it has basically flattened out recently because it simply has no more room to grow in the United States. Going global is essential to the future of the sport, as it would open things up with foreign sponsors, who have deep pockets, and race teams that would raise the competition level.

Part of that would involve holding races outside of the Americas, which may seem like a pain in the butt, but if Formula 1 drivers can fly their cars around the world, Bubba Wallace can jet his No. 23 Toyota Camry to Dubai for a race. The first step to tapping the international market is the Netflix NASCAR: Full Speed series, which like that 1979 CBS broadcast of the Daytona 500, will bring an entirely new audience to the sport.