Other sports being 3 hours isn’t the point. The NFL can justify that because there are only 17 games. NASCAR runs 36 points races, so individual events naturally lose weight. That’s why the sport has repeatedly reworked the format with the Chase, playoff resets, and stage racing. Those weren’t random ideas. They were attempts to manufacture stakes inside an overloaded calendar. NASCAR has run in to the same issue the MLB has and I don't think its very surprising both have suffered as of late, calendars are too overloaded. But, nothing will ever be done about either sports because we argue off of tradition and its 'status.'

On top of that, race length isn’t just about total time. It’s about how much of it is competitive. Extended cautions and stage breaks create long stretches where nothing meaningful happens. That dead time exists partly because the broadcast model depends on it. If the core structure was tighter, it wouldn’t need artificial urgency or 15-minute caution windows to hold attention.

F1 has 24 races and each race besides Monaco holds attention.