These were the biggest issues imo. The new cars didn’t look cool, so kids weren’t nearly as invested in watching a bunch of Toyota camry looking cars go in circles for 3 hours. The car of tomorrow looked lame as shitte. F1 racing vehicles look like a toy a kid would want. Newer NASCAR vehicles do not. Who cares about boring looking cars that are basically all the same, essentially eliminating mechanical ingenuity from the competitive process?

They policed the drivers so much that they could not develop dominant personalities that viewers could identify with. Racing isn’t a team sport. There’s no regional tribalism or natural rivalry for the fanbase to latch on to and act out through the sport. Mostly, what you’re marketing is these drivers’ skills, personalities, and appearances. NASCAR basically neutered their drivers so they couldn’t show any personality leading to fans not being able to identify with. In all pro sports, it’s easier to sell storylines than the competition itself. Racing can easily lend itself to stories of underdogs, babyfaces, and heels, but NASCAR went out of its way to prevent those kinds of narratives from developing. No narrative, no reason to care about individual drivers or feel any emotional attachment to their struggles or successes.

Bottom line: Who cares about cars going around in a circle if they don’t care about the car or the person driving it?