The 2025 NASCAR season marked a new chapter for media rights, with The CW Network emerging as a major player by securing all 33 Xfinity Series races. Before Apr. 5, race coverage was cut remotely from NASCAR’s Concord production centre, while talent worked on-site at the track.
But with the debut of NASCAR’s cutting-edge XR and volumetric studio, CW’s broadcast team can now operate seamlessly on-site or remotely.
CW Goes Full Throttle with New XR Studio for NASCAR Xfinity Coverage
NASCAR’s media world is getting a serious shake-up. FOX, The CW, and Amazon are all in on a massive $7.7 billion deal from 2025 to 2031. FOX is maintaining its stronghold on the Cup Series, with 16 live races airing on FOX and FS1, all produced on-site.
Amazon will enter NASCAR’s broadcast lineup in 2025 with five Cup Series races, beginning with the Coca-Cola 600 in May. The streaming giant will have the heavyweight trio of Carl Edwards, Dale Earnhardt Jr., and Adam Alexander in the commentary booth.
Meanwhile, The CW has made a major play for the Xfinity Series, investing $805 million in a deal that promises to reshape the viewing experience.
The CW has modernized its Xfinity Series coverage by relocating its NASCAR broadcast team to a cutting-edge XR studio in Charlotte, NC. They are bringing fans closer to the action with extended reality (XR) technology.
Developed in collaboration with Provost Studio, the XR stage features a 57-foot-long LED wall delivering 23 million pixels within a 1,550-square-foot studio.
XR and volumetric capture are changing the game in NASCAR coverage. With help from Disguise tech, ARRI cameras, and Famous Group’s creative tools, the new XR studio is up and running faster than ever.
“We’re one of the few facilities on the East Coast with volume walls of this size,” says Mike Zylak, senior director, engineering, NASCAR Productions.
“The Famous Group templates have given us something to start with, and we’ve hired staff to learn how to use the system and incorporate our graphics and XR. We have already utilized Studio 43 for things like car unveils,” he added.
One of the biggest challenges of transitioning to XR production is the need for far more meticulous pre-production planning.
“You need to look at every camera angle,” Zylak explains. “And there are more steps to the facsimile process. With the ARRI Alexa camera being used, we need to color-match to all the other studio cameras.
“The video operators are able to shade the iris and set the blacks, but they can’t adjust the camera color after calibration because it has to match the wall,” he added.
NASCAR’s latest XR studio is just one piece of an ongoing tech evolution at its production HQ. According to Zylak, a new control room is coming soon — smaller in size but still packing about 50% of the capabilities of the flagship rooms.
“We’re getting a lot of small, local regional things that are getting a lot of interest with our OTT platform,” Zylak says.