MLB will host its first game at a NASCAR track, aiming to break attendance record

Baseball fans, start your engines.

Major League Baseball announced Friday that NASCAR’s iconic Bristol Motor Speedway will host a regular-season MLB game for the first time next year.

The game is set for Aug. 2, 2025, between the Atlanta Braves and the Cincinnati Reds. It will also be the first in-season MLB game to be held in Tennessee. 

“We look forward to celebrating our game with a wide array of fans, both on and off the field throughout the weekend, and highlighting the rich traditions of sports, music and community in Tennessee and across the region,” MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred said in a statement.

The Bristol Motor Speedway is one of the largest sporting venues in America with a seating capacity of close to 150,000.

The game next August is likely to break the single-game attendance record for a Major League Baseball game. In 2008, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum hosted an exhibition game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and the Boston Red Sox in front of a crowd of 115,300, setting a Guinness World Record for the largest attendance ever at a baseball game. In comparison, the average MLB ballpark can seat between 40,000 to 45,000 fans. 

This announcement comes as Major League Baseball makes a renewed to expand the game to new venues and fans across the United States and globally. The MLB has hosted games in many nontraditional ballparks, including in 2016 when a game was held on an active military base in Fort Bragg, North Carolina, or in 2021 when the Chicago White Sox played the New York Yankees on the iconic “Field of Dreams” in Dyersville, Iowa. And as recently as June, the league hosted the “MLB at Rickwood Field: A Tribute to the Negro Leagues” in Birmingham, Alabama, two days after the death of Hall of Famer Willie Mays. 

The MLB has also outlined a schedule of ambitious international games, including playing in cities such as Tokyo, Mexico City, Paris, and San Juan, Puerto Rico, all in the 2025 season. 

Meanwhile, the Bristol Motor Speedway is no stranger to high-profile non-NASCAR events. The track hosted an NFL exhibition game in 1961. In 2016, Tennessee and Virginia Tech played in the “Battle at Bristol” on a purpose-built field in the infield that drew 156,990 fans, the largest crowd ever to watch an NCAA football game.

Atlanta Braves third baseman Austin Riley told The Athletic, which was the first to report this news Tuesday, “You see all this stuff, teams traveling (abroad), change it up a little bit. I think it’ll be kind of cool and unique. It’ll be a fun experience.”