It's been analyzed to death. There are many reasons for NASCAR's demise, most of them self-inflicted.
But let me point this out: I think one of the earlier posts said they'd downsized Talladega to 80,000. My goodness.
On the day of Bobby Allison's infamous fence crash thirty years ago, there were 135,000 people in the stands - that's back before the NASCAR boom of the 90s. That means they're down to just more than 1/2 of who was attending when nobody knew who they were.
Reasons?
Car of Tomorrow (they're all the same car now)
Jimmie Johnson winning all those titles without much competition
Changing the rules every time you turn around
Some of their needed driver safety rules (the race back to the line) has made races less competitive
Replacing tracks in your home base (Rockingham, N Wilkesboro) with tracks out West (KC, Chicago, California, TX)
Getting rid of long-term traditions (Southern 500 Labor Day weekend)
Boring races at the newer tracks
It costs too much to actually attend a race
Larger than life personalities from the glory years retired from racing or died
Fox Sports won the contract then put a bunch of races on FX, which not everybody got back in the day
The fad phase is over (like the hula hoop)
There are other reasons but those are many of them.
But let me point this out: I think one of the earlier posts said they'd downsized Talladega to 80,000. My goodness.
On the day of Bobby Allison's infamous fence crash thirty years ago, there were 135,000 people in the stands - that's back before the NASCAR boom of the 90s. That means they're down to just more than 1/2 of who was attending when nobody knew who they were.
Reasons?
Car of Tomorrow (they're all the same car now)
Jimmie Johnson winning all those titles without much competition
Changing the rules every time you turn around
Some of their needed driver safety rules (the race back to the line) has made races less competitive
Replacing tracks in your home base (Rockingham, N Wilkesboro) with tracks out West (KC, Chicago, California, TX)
Getting rid of long-term traditions (Southern 500 Labor Day weekend)
Boring races at the newer tracks
It costs too much to actually attend a race
Larger than life personalities from the glory years retired from racing or died
Fox Sports won the contract then put a bunch of races on FX, which not everybody got back in the day
The fad phase is over (like the hula hoop)
There are other reasons but those are many of them.