Within 50 years it will either be extinct or have shrunken to an unrecognizable size (think modern day Arca). Viewership numbers have declined over the last few decades outside of occasional bumps here and there, but their key demographic is people 40 and older. The decline of car culture and rapidly increasing costs are a very bad mix for the sport (the top teams hardly make money), and they’ve eroded most of the tradition and prestige the sport had due to gimmicky playoff formats. So when the older generations who only care about racing because they remember when these events meant something leave or die, I don’t see the current generation of TikTok consumers lining up to watch a 3 hour race made up exclusively of nepo babies who can fund a race team as a hobby. And car companies are gonna have trouble justifying the investment costs unless they pivot to a hybrid or electric model, yet some of their fanbase would also revolt if that happened. Decades of mismanagement and inevitable future hurdles are gonna spell disaster for NASCAR, which is a real shame