Five reasons why you should watch IndyCar in 2025

Ask a longtime IndyCar fan why they think folks should tune into their sport, and you’re likely to get some of the same answers: The racing is contentious, the drivers are free to showcase their personalities, and the sport boasts one of racing’s most important events in history: The Indianapolis 500.

And while those are all very strong answers, today on PlanetF1.com, we’re going to get specific by sharing why 2025 is a great year to give IndyCar a chance.

IndyCar is getting a broadcast upgrade for 2025

IndyCar parted ways with its longtime broadcaster NBC at the conclusion of the 2024 racing season, and in 2025, it will welcome FOX to the fold.

The move to FOX has been highly anticipated; it was clear that the NBC crew were getting stale, without much innovation or excitement built into the depiction of the sport. The result was an often bland broadcast relegated to one of NBC’s subsidiary cable networks, or confined solely to streaming platforms.

With the move to FOX, every race will be aired on the network, with practices and qualifying on FS1 or FS2 here in America. The move will also come with a fresh graphics package and new injections of life in the form of commentator Will Buxton taking over the charge.

If you’re an F1 fan looking for your excuse to tune into IndyCar for the first time, let Buxton be your guide. He’ll be joined by regular F1TV guest James Hinchcliffe for a full season of broadcasting.

Can Colton Herta earn a place in F1?

With Cadillac earning approval to join the Formula 1 grid in 2026, all eyes have now turned to the team’s potential driver lineup — and Colton Herta seems to top that list.

24-year-old Herta was the championship runner-up in IndyCar last year, with a total of nine wins under his belt during a seven-year career. Despite a whole heap of bad luck that seems to follow him wherever he goes, Herta has emerged as one of the leading candidates for Cadillac, which is aiming to sign an American driver.

The only problem is that Herta isn’t eligible for a super license — though that could change depending on his performance in IndyCar this year.

How IndyCar compares to Formula 1:

? F1 v IndyCar: Top speeds, engines, formats, calendars and safety measures all compared

? Formula 1 v IndyCar: How open-wheel racing’s hybrid powertrains compare

Say hello to Prema Racing

Since 1983, Italian team Prema Racing has made a name for itself in the European open-wheel ladder system, helping so many of its young drivers take a step closer to Formula 1, including Oliver Bearman, Charles Leclerc, Mick Schumacher, Oscar Piastri, Kimi Antonelli, and many more.

Prema has been expanding its motorsport presence to include a team in the World Endurance Championship, and its IndyCar entry will be the latest example of its continued growth.

Perhaps even more compelling is the fact that Prema has created an additional endpoint to the European ladder system. Each year, countless talented young drivers graduate from Formula 2 or Formula 3, only to find that there’s no seat available for them in F1. Many of those talented drivers have moved to WEC or to IndyCar. Now, Prema has a team in both series for its skilled drivers to build a career.

A full year of hybrid power

Partway through the 2024 season, IndyCar swapped from its previous internal combustion engines to a hybrid powertrain, marking a significant shift in the sport’s fortunes.

Unlike F1, IndyCar is far more stagnant when it comes to technological development due to the series’ efforts at cost containment. The field has used the same Dallara DW-12 chassis for over a decade, and the move to hybrid engines was one of the biggest shifts in the sport since that chassis was introduced.

Unfortunately, the NBC broadcast seemed to be caught unaware by this change, and the true impact of the hybrid units and their role in the racing was poorly communicated to fans. With FOX taking over, there’s the expectation that hybridization will make more sense to viewers, and that its strategic impact will make complete sense.

Plus, this will be the first Indy 500 in the sport’s history to use hybrid power trains.

And obviously: The Indianapolis 500

This one obviously goes without saying, but a critical part of each IndyCar season is the Indianapolis 500, an event that has been making history since 1911. Win this race, and you achieve a certain level of immortality in the motorsport world.

This year, there will be multiple fascinating storylines to follow, including:

• Josef Newgarden, Team Penske driver, is looking to become the first driver in history to win the Indy 500 three times in a row.
• Kyle Larson, NASCAR driver, is once again “doing The Double” — which means that when he takes the checkered flag at Indianapolis, he’ll get in a helicopter and fly to Charlotte for NASCAR’s Coca-Cola 600.
• Helio Castroneves is competing in just one race, the 500, in an attempt to become the first driver to win the race five times.
• Pato O’Ward, McLaren IndyCar driver and F1 reserve, was brought to tears by his second-place finish last year; he’ll be hungrier than ever to be the driver to kiss the bricks.
• Nolan Siegel, Jacob Abel, Louis Foster, Robert Shwartzman: Who will be rookie of the year?

And these are only some of the storylines we can expect to follow. Expect to see more drivers sign on for one-off outings at the 500.

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