NASCAR is trading the oval for the silver screen as Amazon prepares to dive into the world of scripted drama. The streaming giant is currently developing a new project titled "Godspeed," a series that promises to bring the intense, high-stakes atmosphere of the NASCAR garage on TV screens across the globe.

According to a report from Deadline, the show centers on a fictional racing dynasty facing a sudden crisis, and the plot goes as follows:

"Parrish Motorsports is the last family-owned team in Stock Car Racing with ties to the original bootleggers. When their owner and driver are killed in a crash, the owner’s widow, Virginia, must rally her fractured family to save the team, protect their legacy, and chase a championship."

Joe Pokaski, the creative mind behind Underground, is leading the charge for this hour-long drama. He is teaming up with Scott Stuber and the production company Sugar23 to build the world of the Parrish family. The project is currently in the development phase, with a writers' room already grinding out scripts. If the timeline holds, the crew expects to begin filming in early 2027.

This partnership seems like a logical next step for Amazon, given its growing footprint in the NASCAR garage. Prime Video solidified its spot in the sport back in 2025 by signing onto a massive $7.7 billion media rights deal. The platform will stream five live races, including heavy hitters like the Coca-Cola 600 at Charlotte and the unique street course battle at Naval Base Coronado.

Amazon is no stranger to racing content either. The platform previously hosted the Garage 56 documentary "American Thunder: NASCAR to Le Mans" and the critically acclaimed "Earnhardt" docu-series. By moving into scripted television with Godspeed, Amazon and NASCAR are looking to turn the internal politics and family rivalries of the sport into the next binge-watch.

Can scripted drama do for NASCAR what documentaries did for F1?

NASCAR has leaned on Hollywood for decades to bring in new fans. "Days of Thunder," starring Tom Cruise, gave the sport a huge lift back in 1990 by putting a cinematic shine on high-speed racing. That film caught the eye of global sponsors and made stock car racing look like a modern spectacle.

Years later, "Talladega Nights" brought a different kind of attention. Some felt the movie turned the culture into a punchline, but many others saw it as a win. It embraced the massive personalities in the garage and proved that NASCAR could be a major commercial draw.

The real question is whether Godspeed can recreate the massive cultural shift sparked by F1's "Drive to Survive". That Netflix series completely changed the game for F1 by taking fans behind the scenes. It focused on the politics and personal lives of the paddock, and the episodic format made it a binge-watch.

Amazon and NASCAR are now trying to capture that same energy with a scripted series. While "Drive to Survive" used real-life footage, "Godspeed" will rely on fiction. It will be more like "F1: The Movie," which became the highest-grossing sports film of all time, in feel, than DTS.

If the screenplay is sharp, the show could offer a similar 'insider' feel that helped F1 take over the American market. NASCAR will hope to reinvent itself at the heart of pop culture with this project.

Read more at the RFK Racing Digest!

Written by

Sanskriti Pastor

Edited by

Yask Kotak