A new FOX Sports promo for this weekend’s NASCAR Cup Series race at Las Vegas Motor Speedway features an AI-Generated clip of a NASCAR Cup Series car that is now the center of controversy in the NASCAR online community.
Over the past few seasons, NASCAR fans and sports fans in general have grown accustomed to the use of AI-generated content in marketing and promotional materials.
While AI content can sometimes go unnoticed, those with a keen eye can often pick out mistakes both big and small in this content.
This week, ahead of NASCAR’s Cup Series weekend at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, FOX Sports rolled out a new promo promoting the race, though NASCAR fans have singled out one glaring issue with this advertisement.
In total, the promo runs at just 15 seconds, with several alternating shots of cars, drivers, and other assorted b-roll, reflecting the fast-paced advertising style NASCAR fans are already familiar with.
However, the end of this promo features a short clip of a car doing a burnout on the front stretch of a race track.
Now, it wouldn’t take a NASCAR expert to spot this clip as AI-generated content, as the track’s frontstretch does not reflect any current venues on the NASCAR schedule, but a closer look shows that the car doing the burnout in this clip leaves a lot more to be desired as far as accuracy is concerned.
The car, which bears Tyler Reddick’s 23XI Racing No. 45, and the Monster Energy The Beast paint scheme he sported prior to this season, features several accessories not found on the NASCAR Next Gen car, including an elongated splitter, rear wing, taillights, and, most comical of all, rear-view mirrors.
Though this clip is a small, yet disappointing oversight, the NASCAR community took to social media last night to share their displeasure with the promo.
Wednesday evening, after a user on X shared a recording of the burnout clip from the promo, the NASCAR community jumped on it, with the video gaining over 100,000 views and garnering responses ranging from fans listing out the factual inaccuracies to others tying this clip to the community’s past grievances with FOX.
One user, @GEARSRacing, said in response to this clip from the Las Vegas promo, “This is a perfect example of the complacency and laziness of @NASCARONFOX. They do not care.”
Others were more direct with their frustration in their response, with user @MidNightMoon_x responding, “Put what’s left of Fox’s art department in the deep fryer and start over.”
Many fans were generally displeased with the use of AI-generated content, but others, such as well-known NASCAR community member DennyDeliversYT, chimed in by pointing out that FOX had three weeks’ worth of Reddick burnouts to use from this season alone.
While many were quick to point out the flaws of AI use in this promo, the ad itself was far from perfect even without this final shot, aswithin its 15-second runtime it features clips from races spanning the NASCAR Next Gen era.
Furthermore, one clip used in the promo featured Shane van Gisbergen’s No. 97 Kaulig Racing car from the 2024 NASCAR Xfinity Series season racing at what looks to be a road course.
Nonetheless, this is not the first or the last time a NASCAR partner or team will use AI-Generated content, and while the response from the NASCAR community was quick and harsh, this incident does set the bar for future use of AI content.
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