Simulated racing, which rose to prominence during the pandemic as NASCAR and F1 postponed races, appears to be paying off for fans, race teams, and even tracks
Roy Furchgott / New York Times : Tweets: @royfurchgott , @ppistone , @beaualbert06 , and @nytimesbusiness Tweets: Roy Furchgott / @royfurchgott : When NASCAR and F1 replaced races with simulations, no one knew what would happen. Could cars without motors sell motor oil? Would anyone watch? The answer was surprising. https://www.nytimes.com/... Pete Pistone / @ppistone : Interesting story with some insight on how iRacing will play a role in many reimagined NASCAR racing weekend schedules this season https://twitter.com/... Beau Albert / @beaualbert06 : Love seeing Simracing featured in articles like these. We're a long way away from 2010 now! https://twitter.com/... @nytimesbusiness : In these highly realistic video games, cars obey the laws of physics and race on reproductions of real-life tracks that are accurate down to the last pavement seam. https://www.nytimes.com/...
Context & Ripple Effects
When the pandemic suspended live racing, NASCAR and F1 did something untested: they replaced postponed races with simulated events on platforms like iRacing, part of the broader pivot by pro athletes and teams toward video game streaming to keep fans engaged and open new revenue. The New York Times' Roy Furchgott reports the experiment worked — for fans, race teams, and even the tracks themselves.
The payoff has outlasted the emergency. Pete Pistone notes iRacing is now built into many reimagined NASCAR weekend schedules this season rather than serving as a stopgap, and the format has since produced a genuine talent story: Max Verstappen's own competitive sim racing and his push to move sim drivers into physical cars (sim racing). Meanwhile, the audience shift created adjacent markets — bookmakers reported e-sports betting rising as much as 40x once live sports went dark.
First-order effects
- Fans, race teams, and tracks gain direct value from simulated events: teams keep sponsor visibility and fan contact during postponements, and tracks — per Furchgott's reporting — find ways to benefit even without cars physically present.
- iRacing moves from pandemic substitute to scheduled programming, with Pistone reporting it will play a role in many reimagined NASCAR weekend schedules this season.
Second-order effects
- Bookmakers and betting platforms, which already watched e-sports wagering surge during the sports shutdown, gain a new wagerable product category as simulated racing becomes a recurring, televised schedule item.
- Race tracks and series operators face pressure to treat virtual events as a revenue line of their own — bundling broadcasts, sponsorship, and possibly track-branded virtual venues — rather than a free placeholder for live racing.
Third-order effects
- If sim-to-real pipelines like Verstappen's effort to place sim drivers in physical cars mature, driver development shifts downstream: esports becomes a scouting ground, lowering entry costs for aspiring racers and changing how teams source talent.
- Motorsport's structure bends toward hybrid calendars where digital and physical races are planned together permanently — a pattern echoed by adjacent experiments like Zed Run's NFT horse racing platform selling digital steeds for six figures.
The trend: Motorsport is institutionalizing simulation — from pandemic stopgap to scheduled product, betting market, and talent pipeline — making virtual racing a permanent layer of the sport rather than an emergency substitute.