Interestingly, stock car racing can trace its roots to the late 1940s when Bill France Sr. established NASCAR as a racing league for competitors in the post-WW2 era who could race in cars that cost a lot less than the traditional “open-wheel” and “sports car” racing cars that were so popular back then.
Ironically, it’s now less expensive to run a full season of IndyCar than it is to run a full season in Sprint Cup. Granted, Cup’s season is a lot longer, but break it down to individual races and IndyCar costs around half per race.
OTOH, IndyCar gets such poor TV ratings and has such lousy attendance (other than Long Beach and Indianapolis) that it’s a really tough sell for sponsors.
In either case, we’re still not talking Formula One money. For what Ferrari spends in an average F1 season, you could fund TEN Sprint Cup teams.