Major League Baseball has announced a new special event for the 2025 regular season. The “Speedway Classic” will take place in Bristol, Tennessee as the Atlanta Braves and Cincinnati Reds play in the ‘Last Great Colosseum’ at Bristol Motor Speedway. The iconic NASCAR track will host a regular season MLB game for the first time ever on Aug. 2, 2025. This game will also mark the first ever in-season MLB game in Tennessee.  

Bristol Motor Speedway is one of the largest sporting venues in America, holding up to almost 150,000 seating capacity. It is located in northeast Tennessee near the Tennessee-Virginia line. The track has held a plethora of events like NASCAR races, other professional sports races, NFL and NCAA football games, and a variety of music events. The most notable of the non-NASCAR events was the “Battle at Bristol” which was a college football game between the Tennessee Volunteers and Virginia Tech Hokies that broke the NCAA football attendance record of 156,990. The ’25 contest between the Braves and Reds is expected to break the MLB attendance record of 115,300 set in a 2008 preseason game between the Los Angeles Dodgers and defending champion Boston Red Sox at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum.

“I think it’s going to be really cool. I’m a NASCAR fan so them playing at the track is going to be a unique experience. I’m definitely wanting to go.” – Landon Baskins, Braves Fan

The news comes as part of MLB’s initiative to expand the game of baseball. The proximity of the Atlanta Braves and Cincinnati Reds was most definitely factored in when considering the teams for the contest at Bristol. Although Tennessee has multiple minor league teams, there is no MLB franchise. The surrounding states of Tennessee consist mostly of Braves and Reds fans to allow the venue to be filled with passionate people with limited access to professional baseball. The prowess of the two teams was also considered as both have high octane talent. MLB has also hosted games at unconventional venues like Honolulu, Hawaii; Fort Bragg, North Carolina; Omaha, Nebraska; Birmingham, Alabama and Dyersville, Iowa, the location of the ‘Field of Dreams’ game.  

NASCAR fan Rocky Stewart, talking about the 25’ game, stated, “Although it’s an MLB game I think it helps build the NASCAR scene as well.”