Nascar Finds New Levels Of Creativity With Rocket League Partnership

Nascar drivers are starting to pop up in places people might not expect them to. The sport as a whole is venturing out of traditional mediums in an attempt to reach a younger, more diverse demographic.

But Nascar’s latest partnership might be the most unique of them all. Nine of the sport’s stars are now featured prominently in the popular Rocket League video game, which is a soccer game for cars. The cars are the soccer players, and the Nascar fan pack lets gamers use their favorite drivers’ cars to compete.

“This incredibly successful integration introduced Nascar to the highly engaged audience that makes up the Rocket League universe,” Nick Rend, managing director of esports and gaming at Nascar, said. “The dynamic gameplay uniquely presents our sport to a young and passionate audience where they reside, allowing them to experience NASCAR and encourage them to become lifelong fans.”

Among the drivers featured in the game are Ryan Newman, Joey Logano, Aric Almirola, Kurt Busch, Austin Dillon, Chase Elliott, Erik Jones, Kyle Busch and Bubba Wallace. To launch the program, Dillon went on Twitch with Richard Childress Racing photographer Justin Whapham, and the stream had almost one million views.

The partnership with Rocket League, which is owned by Psyonix, is another symbol of Nascar’s evolving leadership. A new, energized audience could set up the sport quite well just months after stars Pitbull and Michael Jordan became Nascar team owners.

“It’s interesting to us that Nascar is looking to expand in this way and looking for this audience to reach a younger demographic,” Joe Puglisi, vice president of creative and brand partnerships at Rebel Ventures, said. “They’re really branching out in various ways, and this is one that is incredible to see.”

Rebel Ventures, a sports strategy and activation firm, has been working with several large sports organizations for quite some time, including the NBA. The group “helps sports teams and brands tell stories together,” as Puglisi puts it.

“We started this work with the Psyonix team in the past with some of our other clients. We were brought in to think about — creatively — how do we bring this to life. We’ve done work with Formula 1 in the past and had some touch points already, but this is our first time working with Nascar.”

Nascar has been pushing for a large focus on esports since the Covid-19 pandemic forced the sport to pause for several months in 2020. From pushing iRacing to the eNascar Heat Pro League, Nascar is aiming to also develop future stars via video games.

But this partnership with Rocket League changes everything.

“They need to be pushing the brand out in places where people are spending their time, creating authentic experiences for them that make people think it’s cool,” Puglisi said. “This is a great opportunity for Nascar to introduce their personalities to an entirely new audience, which I think resonated.”

As Nascar adopts its business model to modernize its brand, finding ways to create natural relationships like the one with Rocket League can only enhance the sport and individual drivers’ marketability with potential sponsors.