Wide Open Sports

It is the best time of the year. Fall is right around the corner and we’ve finally made it to football season. Groups of friends, family, and colleagues all around the world are picking their fantasy football teams. Fantasy sports have become a huge part of today’s sports landscape. ESPN just celebrated the 30th anniversary of their Fantasy Football platform in 2025. But as we head into the first year of the reintroduced Chase for the Cup, I cannot help but wonder: what happened to Fantasy NASCAR?

It was a pastime for my family to come home from Sunday church and immediately begin discussing our picks for the race later that day. My sisters and I would write up a list of each family members’ pick to win the race and plaster it on the wall of our living room. My eldest sister would usually pick Dale Jarrett or Tony Stewart. My mom would pick Jeff Gordon. My dad would pick Kevin Harvick. I always picked Bobby Labonte. It was always fun when one of our picks actually won a race. I vividly recall one day in late 2005 when my mom got in a pretty severe car accident, and we watched from a hospital room as Dale Jarrett won his final NASCAR Cup Series race at Talladega. My mom may have been in pain but I recall my sister being ecstatic about the win. Everything revolved around the race much like it now revolves around the NFL season. This is what it was like to grow up in the golden age of NASCAR in the late 90s and early 2000s.

ESPN used to host a fantasy NASCAR platform. It was launched in February of 2001 under the name, RPM.ESPN Stock Car Challenge, utilizing a salary cap format. Each driver was assigned a dollar value and players would attempt to optimize their 5 driver lineup while remaining under the salary cap. ESPN later added Fantasy Stock Car Racing, which more closely resembled the drafting, adding, and dropping of traditional fantasy football. Yahoo also used to host a fantasy NASCAR platform that debuted in the same year as ESPN. Their format utilized a 3-tier grouping system instead of a salary cap. Drivers were ranked on a weekly basis depending on the track and were placed into an A tier, B tier, or C tier. Each week, players would select two active drivers and two “bench” drivers. Players could only pick a given driver 9 times during the season. Yahoo discontinued their Fantasy NASCAR game in 2018. Much like ESPN, Fox Sports launched a salary cap-based game in 2011 but, just like ESPN and Yahoo, Fox Sports discontinued their platform in 2018.

Why did this happen? in 2018, NASCAR launched their own fantasy NASCAR platform through their mobile app which focused on the newly introduced stage racing. Around the same time, ESPN phased NASCAR out of their broadcasting. Instead of adapting to the real-life format changes made by NASCAR, the hosting apps like ESPN, Yahoo, and Fox Sports chose to exit the market. This has effectively left NASCAR with no alternative/competition in the fantasy NASCAR market since 2018. Now, in the year 2026, the NASCAR app feels clunky and outdated. The app is difficult to navigate and has alienated some older fans who aren’t as experienced with technology (like my 63 year old father.)

NASCAR has done a great job in recent years of redirecting their focus to the things that matter most to the diehard fans. They have developed the in-season challenge, reintroduced tracks, and, as previously mentioned, reintroduced the Chase. They must now focus on reintroducing the fantasy experience to their fans. With all due respect to their respective sports, in a world that features thriving fantasy communities in sports like hockey and women’s basketball, there is no reason why the NASCAR community should not have a thriving fantasy community of its own.