After a successful first season of documentary series RISING, which garnered over 11 million views across five episodes across platforms, NASCAR Studios has announced a partnership to air the new season of RISING on Xumo Play. 

Xumo Play will air the episodes of the new season 14 days before it is released on NASCAR’s official platform. According to the announcement, the second season of the show, which aims to give fans a perspective on what upcoming drivers go through, will feature Carson Hocevar, Connor Zilisch, and Brendan ‘Butterbean’ Queen. 

NASCAR’s official website confirmed the news, and the episodes will be streamed monthly starting in August. It was also announced that Xumo Play will hold the exclusive streaming rights to the docu-series for 6 months from its release date. 

In the announcement on the official website, Alma Angeles-Parvaz, vice president, partnership marketing, NASCAR, said, “With the launch of RISING Season 2 exclusively on Xumo Play, we’re building on the partnership we established with Xumo last year to expand our digital footprint and make the sport more accessible to fans across the country.”

Parvaz continued, “Xumo’s focus on simplicity and discoverability compliments NASCAR’s approach to storytelling and content, creating a strong alignment that helps us better serve fans and bring them closer to the sport.”

While those were the quotes by her, NASCAR fans have been disappointed by another decision they believe to be a bad one from the executives. 

Fans have already been commenting on posts by various journalists like Jeff Gluck and Claire B Lang on X after they reported the news via their social handles. 

Fans left with a sour taste after NASCAR call

Fan comments have come in thick and fast about what they believe is a decision that goes against providing fans with accessible content. 

Currently, NASCAR's $7.7 billion media deal is a diverse broadcasting portfolio from 2025 to 2031, which includes FOX Sports, NBC Sports, Prime Video, and TNT Sports. Fans feel the sport's content has become increasingly fragmented under this arrangement and makes it harder to follow different NASCAR programs on different platforms.

One fan recalled some poor decisions made by the sport on a broadcasting front, saying, “NASCAR makes some weird decisions Classic races on Tubi The 24/7 NASCAR channel In car camera on HBO Races on 5 different Broadcast networks Some shows on prime Some on youtube There should be a single platform discovery That's how u build a brand Give it all to prime plz.”

Another fan complained about NASCAR’s content being spread all across, “This is a big problem with NASCAR. It’s hard to watch anything. Every series on different channels and networks, nothing is cohesive.”

One fan directly called out the NASCAR, saying the decision goes against the aim of growing the sport. They mentioned having such shows on channels like Prime or HBO, especially since they already work with the sport. The two-week delay for YouTube was also criticized.

Some fans were also unhappy paying another subscription for a new platform and also questioned the choice, saying, "The last thing I need is another subscription!”

Clearly, this is another call by NASCAR that fans aren’t happy about. Many felt that the move was another example of NASCAR prioritizing distribution deals over accessibility and audience growth.

It will be interesting to see how the data looks after the series has been released. What are your thoughts about this new broadcast deal?

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Written by

Debrup Chaudhuri

Edited by

Suyashdeep Sason