NASCAR: Full Speed Review: what it got right and wrong

Bad: Explaining NASCAR for new viewers

However, where Drive to Survive has spent its entire five seasons so far attempting to explain F1 in its most basic possible terms, NASCAR: Full Speed at times felt like it was relying on existing knowledge.

The constant lowest common denominator nature of Drive to Survive might be annoying for long standing fans (“To win you must finish first”), but it’s part of the reason why it has drawn in casual fans. NASCAR: Full Speed felt at times like it was missing that. NASCAR’s convoluted play off system is explained adequately, but it fails to really tell people what NASCAR actually is.

On the face of it, NASCAR seems like a simple sport, but it’s really not. What are stage points? How many drivers take part? How long are races? Who else is racing? What actually leads up to the playoffs? How did NASCAR get here? What is oval racing? What are the cars? In five episodes it probably couldn’t explain all of this, but it felt to me like it could have at least done a few better, especially with expert voices including Dale Earnhardt Jr. and Jeff Gordon available.