NASCAR has become the hottest professional sport in the United States, and is second only to the National Football League in terms of television ratings. Much of the growth in this popularity is attributed to the heavy connection with corporate America and the sports national television exposure. NASCAR fans are considered to be the most brand-loyal in all of sports, and spend over $2 billion in annual licensed product sales. As a result, corporate America has turned the drivers into walking billboards, and plastered their faces on thousands of products.


NASCAR has the reputation of being a southern, white redneck sport, but this conception is largely misleading. According to NASCAR, its fan demographics closely parallel national averages.

African-Americans make up 10 percent of NASCAR fans, as opposed to 11.7 percent of NFL fans. This percentage has jumped dramatically in recent years, up 86 percent since 1999.

Forty percent of NASCAR fans are female, and the number is growing.

And most surprising is the even geographic distribution of NASCAR fans. Twenty percent of NASCAR fans live in the northeast, which is equal to the percentage of the U.S. population that lives in the northeast. The South accounts for 38 percent of NASCAR fans, and 35 percent of the U.S. population.

See also:

• Bootlegging Roots
• NASCAR History
• NASCAR Lore: The Call
• Organization
• Television
• The Birth of NASCAR
• The Daytona 500
• The Growth of the Sport