IndyCar's Docuseries Will Be Produced by Vice and Air on The CW

The immense success of Netflix's F1 docuseries Drive to Survive has spurred nearly infinite copycat programs across all corners of the sports world. It's also sent every race series scrambling to figure out how it can harness some of the Drive to Survive energy, with MotoGP and NASCAR issuing similar programs with varying degrees of success, and now one from IndyCar.

IndyCar's series is called 100 Days to Indy. As you may have guessed, it'll follow drivers and teams for the lead-up to the 2022 Indy 500, a race that was ultimately won by Marcus Ericsson. Like these other series, there'll likely be a bunch of talking head interviews and on- and off-track action from their lives.

The series will debut next spring on The CW. That may seem to be an odd choice considering IndyCar races air on NBC-owned stations and The CW is best known for shows that appeal to people who are teens or teen-adjacent, but there is a reason. IndyCar's built-in audience isn't getting younger, with more than half of its 2022 race-watching audience being over 50 years old. The CW has an impossibly young demographic that can then open up the series to a fresh audience.

Vice will produce the series, which gives me high hopes. Their investigative work is frequently smart and fun, and even their early work where they would go into North Korea and film secretly is still compelling to watch today. Vice will also show the series on its own TV network and promote it on social.

The thing is, even if this series is great, all of these docuseries are now entering a flooded market and different circumstances than when Drive to Survive became a massive hit. The pandemic has waned, meaning we're not as starved for content as when DTS took off, and not being native on a streaming service may make it harder for people to find the show. Hopefully IndyCar's story is compelling enough for people to tune in.