NASCAR Full Speed, the Netflix docuseries best described as Formula 1 Drive to Survive but with Stock Cars has done really well and the president of the sanctioning body expects it will receive a sequel in 2025.
He made that point during an interview this week on SiriusXM NASCAR Radio.
“The Netflix show is an important show for us,” Phelps said. “If you haven’t seen the show, watch it, it’s terrific. It paints these guys in a different light. You see them as guys in helmets strapping into cars doing courageous things…they’re human. The emotions that come with being a NASCAR driver and how hard it is.
“The show’s terrific, we think they’re going to green light a second year for us. Would love to see instead of 5 episodes, 8 episodes but that’s just me. I think we should see 10. “It’s a great opportunity for us to kind of feed that core fan and really find new fans who are interested in the sport who would never consider NASCAR as kind of in their consideration for sports.”
Days of Thunder Sequel
This is not the only pop culture arena that NASCAR is exploring as league COO Steve O’Donnell says his office has kicked around the idea of a sequel to Days of Thunder.
That was, of course, a 1990 movie about the sport starring Tom Cruise, which was a heavily fictionalized version of Tim Richmond, Harry Hyde and Rick Hendrick in the old Winston Cup Series. The movie is not entirely realistic but remains a cult hit of sorts that did give NASCAR a boost of popularity in the 1990s.
With that said, nothing is in development.
“We’d love to see that,” O’Donnell said. “The more places we can expose NASCAR to with a broader audience, the better. With Netflix, when they’re advertising (Full Speed) in the middle of Times Square right now — that’s huge, and it shows what a great partner they already have been. So anytime you can expose the sport outside of a regular race weekend broadcast is big for us,” he said in the Sports Business Journal.
Paramount+ had pitched to Cruise a Days of Thunder sequel but the Hollywood Reporter said in 2022 it never made it off the ground.
That wasn’t the only point of friction. As Paramount flailed for material to pump up its fledgling streaming service, would Cruise allow his longtime studio home to develop a Days of Thunder series for the streamer? That idea was strangled in its cradle.
The Hollywood Reporter
Matt Weaver is a Motorsports Insider for Sportsnaut. Follow him on Twitter.