NASCAR: Velocidade Máxima

As a huge automotive enthusiast, but only a casual race fan l, I watch just about anything car related. A few years back I stumbled onto Drive to Survive and I've been hooked on that show and F1 ever since. I saw this pop up as a suggestion, and was hoping for more of the D2S magic.

Nope.

This is 5 episodes of them trying to figure the D2S formula out and tie it to NASCAR, but they never quite do. All of the drivers come off as pompous jerks, and each episode is basically a rehash of the previous episode, meaning they are all the same. They focus on the playoffs with almost no backstory, then try to build the tension of who will win? Who cares? They all kind of suck and you don't learn anything about them of substance. This one just never gets off the starting line.

This docuseries does have a few interesting personalities to watch, and the racing is sometimes interesting, but it is boring and repetitive in five short episodes. Mostly, this is due to the nature of the sport. They really do just drive around in circles. It's a stereotype that happens to be true. While there is certainly a lot of money in Nascar, it pales in comparison to F1. In F1, the big teams can spend a half a billion dollars per year. This leads to investing in making the cars as fast as they can possibly go within the rules, and in Nascar the cars still have to look like cars, if that makes sense. I think the drivers, are very talented, but they are so American. It would be interesting to see how they would do in F1 and how F1 drivers would do in Nascar. If you are looking for a more entertaining racing docuseries, check out 'Drive to Survive'.

I really enjoyed this series! I thought they did a great job of giving the viewers a behind the scenes look into the drivers lives, race teams, and even their individual personalities. I also thought the nature was the sport was articulated well enough for newer fans or people who aren't fans to be able to understand the intricacies of the sport, beyond just driving in circles. The one thing that I would have changed is I feel some of the playoff drivers didn't get nearly enough attention (Larson, Busch, Truex) based off of their status and success during the regular season. Maybe a little too much Denny Hamlin, but hey he has the biggest personality so I can't complain too much. All in all, I really liked this and hope it is done again next year, maybe even with a few more episodes so we can get to know more of the drivers and teams.

It's clear it's supposed to be a repeat of the success of drive to survive. Just simply doesn't have the same magic, it looks to appeal to the American NASCAR audience but not quite anyone else.

I tried to watch it as an Australian, who's never really seen NASCAR as interesting and thought it may be fun to see what it's all about. It's very American, entertaining but just not as amazing as other motorsports. It's good to see what happens behind closed doors and it's made and produced well despite missing the mark to appeal to outsiders like drive to survive does. Not the worst but not close to the best.

This show is great! With that being said there is a complaint to be made that they just skipped over the regular and the wonderful stories that came from it. (Example: RFK) I would say that this shows main purpose was to explain and give the playoffs more credibility to casual fans as in the past years the tv ratings in the playoffs have been down.

I can easily see this show gaining more interest by casual fans and create new fans of the sport like F1: Drive to Survive did for Formula 1. The main purpose is to give the itch and it allows the new fan to learn more on their own, getting more excited when they learn more.

I hope we get more seasons and we get more stories next. With a 30+ driver field it can be hard but I would rather them really focus on playoffs and allow the casual fan to explore more into the great sport!!!