Racing Wives: Exploring NASCAR’s Reality TV Debut Before Netflix’s “Full Speed” Docuseries Was a Thing

Netflix’s NASCAR documentary Full Speed was released this season to rave reviews from fans. It is seen as a big step towards popularizing stock car racing among the next generation with a second season currently in the works. But before Full Speed or any other similar show came to the limelight, there was a lesser-known reality TV series by the name of Racing Wives.

Racing Wives aired on CMT back in 2019 and was aimed at exploring the personal lives of five prominent women in NASCAR: Samantha Busch, Ashley Busch, Whitney Dillon, Amber Balcean, and Mariel Lane. Samantha is the wife of two-time Cup Series champion Kyle Busch and Ashley is the better half of his brother Kurt. Whitney is the spouse of Austin Dillon.

Mariel isn’t married to a driver, but to Paul Swan, who was the No. 3 Richard Childress Racing team’s tire carrier at the time. Amber is the only one in the group who wasn’t a NASCAR wife. She was an aspiring driver with the dream of driving for Kyle Busch Motorsports one day. ‘Racing Wives’ was created to display the affluent lives of these women and the drama that they dealt with regularly.

The series is largely comparable to the Real Housewives franchise, but it has an extra tinge of Southernness added to it thanks to the heavy impact of NASCAR. Not all the husbands of these women were pleased with the idea of having a camera crew in their homes. Austin Dillon, in particular, had been highly pessimistic about things. But he had to give in ultimately.

Kyle Busch, on the other hand, had been pleased that his wife’s struggles with infertility and her subsequent philanthropic work in the field would gain more attention. Fan reactions were mixed for the show and it was never renewed for a second season. However, some really interesting layers are bound to be interesting for today’s fans.

For instance, the complex relationship between Samatha and Balcean makes for an intriguing watch. The same case follows with the friendship of Whitney and Mariel. The duo are the biggest reason for the show to happen in the first place. Whitney had been interviewing with a talent agency about a wedding reality show when they’d told her that they would need someone for her to talk to on it.

She’d pointed the finger at Mariel, who was her best friend, and the people at the agency loved the idea. They soon proposed shooting a show that would delve into the lives of the NASCAR wives. CMT bought the show not long after and began filming. Another interesting aspect is that there is the occasional cameo from the Cup Series drivers in certain episodes. 

There has been no update about the future of the series since its first season. A renewal could be beneficial for the reach of the sport if the right cast members are chosen as they were the first time around.