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Kyle Larson's racial slur drags NASCAR backward

Sports has all but stopped in the face of the coronavirus pandemic. No games. No fans. No revenue.

About the only glimmer of hope out there was NASCAR. The stock car circuit certainly would have preferred running its traditional season, but faced with that impossibility, it has been staging simulated online events, with top drivers, on the iRacing platform.

It wasn’t the same, but it also wasn’t bad. In its own way, it was unique and a bit addictive. Weekly viewership has topped 1 million on Fox and FS1. It actually served as an opportunity for targeted growth for a sports league plagued by troublesome demographic trends and the departure of star drivers.