I live in the Deep South and hardly hear a word about NASCAR anymore. I'll be honest, I do not follow it close at all. But even so.....Through the 90s and very early 2000s, EVERYONE had on some sort of NASCAR T shirt. And I mean outside of Gordon and #3. I'm a 90 minute drive to Daytona Speedway and there is ZERO chatter about the upcoming race. It's very strange.
I have heard rumbles of NASCAR becoming too soft and PC in the past 3-4 years but not much else. In the 90s, I knew some fans who thought NASCAR was raping fans with VERY high ticket prices (But that was when it was hip)