On March 13, two days after the NBA announced it would suspend its season amid the coronavirus pandemic, NASCAR followed suit, canceling all future races.
That same morning, Fox Sports' Eric Shanks contacted Steve Myers at game company iRacing about replacing real-world races with virtual ones. “Your gut told you it was the right move,” Shanks tells The Hollywood Reporter.
Within 10 days, the eNASCAR iRacing Pro Series debuted across Fox networks featuring 35 NASCAR drivers — including Dale Earnhardt Jr., Denny Hamlin and Jimmie Johnson — using iRacing rigs to compete on virtual tracks from their homes.
In a world devoid of live sports, the series has become a hit, with races routinely pulling in more than a million viewers. In addition to.