How NASCAR is Stealing a Page from Netflix, F1 'Drive to Survive'

• Drive to Survive has created the sort of buzz and increased in-person attendance that has NASCAR paying attention.

• Drive to Survive focuses on several F1 drivers and teams, both on and off the track. It’s a formula that seems to resonate with viewers.

• Race for the Championship will use the same sort of Drive to Survive playbook with the focus on the week to week lives of the drivers and teams.

Ever since F1 debuted their “Drive to Survive” series on Netflix in 2018 few could argue that it’s helped increase interest in the sport, especially among those in North America. The series was just renewed for a fourth season and according to at least one report, increased attendance at the F1 races in America.

The series counts NASCAR drivers among its fans.

“I haven't finished the latest season,” reigning NASCAR Cup champion Kyle Larson said. “But they do a really good job with it, and it definitely has grown their fan base a lot.

“We've all enjoyed watching it and enjoy the drama that they spill into it some and it definitely makes their racing seem more exciting.”

Drive to Survive has created the sort of buzz and increased in-person attendance that has NASCAR paying attention.

NASCAR has worked on its own series on several occasions: most recently with the six-part docuseries on Netflix “Race” with Bubba Wallace, and the reality show “Life in the Fast Lane” with Austin Dillon on the USA Network.

But both those shows focus on a single driver. Drive to Survive focuses on several F1 drivers and teams, both on and off the track. It’s a formula that seems to resonate with viewers.

“I’d say I watch it a little more intently now,” Joey Logano said. “You learn a little bit more about how their sport works and really peeling back the curtains of not necessarily their personal lives that I really care about, but it’s how the race team is run and how they do things differently than what we do here in NASCAR. Those things were intriguing to me, so I think it’s pretty obvious it was successful, and I think it’s smart for us to look for ways to do the same thing.”

NASCAR is now adapting the Drive to Survive formula with a new show on the USA Network that will focus on several drivers and teams, including Larson, Logano and Ryan Blaney.

Race for the Championship will use the same sort of Drive to Survive playbook with the focus on the week to week lives of the drivers and teams both on and off the track. A great deal of the footage has already been filmed, and drivers said the production seem too intrusive which is a good thing as the show will focus on the Playoffs in the coming weeks.

“They do a really good job of kind of staying back and staying out of your face, which is really nice,” Larson said. “It lets you still focus on your job, it's not like a camera's right over your shoulder, 24 7.”

Larson added that those involved in the production understand what goes on the sport and that helps a great deal.

“All the camera crew and producers and stuff they're racers,” Larson said. “They've been doing this for a long time in racing and they understand when you need to do things that don't need to be on camera and focus with your team.”

Logano has seen the first episode of show and so far what he’s seen is pretty true to what actually happened.

“There are some editing ways and kind of how they create a character, in a way,” Logano said. “But I wouldn’t say they’re far off on a lot of it. I thought it was good.

“They came to my house, and they shot what I said was OK to shoot and they didn’t what I said I didn’t want them to see. The only thing I don’t want them to see is I don’t want people to know where I live. That’s a security piece. I don’t want that, and they were respectful about that. I said, ‘Here are the things that I’m willing to show,’ and we lived our life, and they filmed it. I can’t say we did anything differently than what we typically would do. It was good.”

Much of the 10-week series will follow drivers racing for NASCAR’s Cup championship. But the focus won’t be just on the races each week but what also goes on away from the racing.

“It was life and they filmed it,” Logano said. “It’s going to be fun to watch that and how everybody does things differently and how lives are different away from the racetrack. Everyone has different amount of kids or married or not or whatever. Everyone has a different life. It’s kind of fun to see.”

NASCAR hopes that the series will resonate with viewers in the way Drive to Survive has: By showing the lives of those in the sport while they are “in the game” and on the sidelines.

“Hopefully the people enjoy it,” Ryan Blaney said. “You know, getting to know us a little bit more and kind of whether it's a more we have more information to them on race, weekends, or more information about us in our personal lives.”

And as viewers get to know drivers better, there’s hope that they will be seen differently.

“I feel like it's just another level of humanizing us,” Kyle Busch said. “Athletes, drivers, families, things like that of what we do outside the sport. Obviously, there's a lot to be filmed and a lot of things that go on behind the scenes and the things that aren't on broadcast television each and every week.

“To kind of showcase a little bit of that, obviously, there's a storyline, a huge development of lives and situations that are outside of just the broadcast. I feel like they're trying to do the best they can and showcase some of that and get some of those storylines out there. “

For a polarizing driver like Busch, those tuning in might see a different side of the racer.

“I guess the humanizing the villain, let's say,” Busch said smiling. “I'd like to be known by a heck of a lot more than just what is on broadcast television each weekend or not on broadcast television.

“I'm a husband, I'm a father, I'm a racer. And that's all I’ve really known. I've grown up doing that. I've come from a blue-collar family from Las Vegas where my dad was a Mac Tool man and didn't come up from a lot but obviously trying to instill those same traits into my kids and how we go about what we do each and every week to go to the racetrack. So, for me, I would like to think that just, you know, showing the human side, humanizing myself and what is important to me, not just at the racetrack, but away from the racetrack.”

What do you think? Will you watch? Can NASCAR capture the magic (or at least the viewership) of Drive to Survive? Start the discussion in the comments section below.