RACER's top drivers and marques of the 2025 – as voted by you

The 2025 year in motorsports had something for everyone.

Did you want to see a once-in-a-generation driver at the absolute top of their game? IndyCar had you covered, with Chip Ganassi Racing’s Alex Palou dominating in a way never before seen in the DW12 era.

If you preferred flag to flag drama, Formula 1 and NASCAR both delivered, albeit in different ways. In F1, the intra-team battle at McLaren, and late emergence of Max Verstappen as potential spoiler, kept the championship intrigue running right down to the last lap in Abu Dhabi.

Final race drama was guaranteed in NASCAR due to the now-parked playoffs format, but even within that context, the Phoenix finale was a memorable one. For better, or for worse? That depended on whether you’re a fan of Denny Hamlin...

Looking for a bit of everything? As always, sports car racing had you covered. From the constant push-pull among the GTP/Hypercar fields to the fights in the margins among the ultra-competitive GT classes, IMSA and the WEC had it all.

Over the last few weeks, we’ve asked RACER readers to vote for your 2025 standouts: the drivers that impressed you most in F1, IndyCar and NASCAR, and the marques that made the biggest impact on the sports car fields. And the winners are…

INDYCAR: ALEX PALOU

No surprises here. Much as he did in the championship, Palou won this by a landslide, collecting 51% of the vote. (A count that’s pretty close to his 2025 win rate).

Fan favorite Pato O’Ward’s effort to take the fight to the Spaniard caught enough eyes to earn him a very distant second place with 7% of the vote. Just behind him is Will Power, who departed Team Penske with the team’s sole win of the season, and 6% of the fan vote.

FORMULA 1: MAX VERSTAPPEN

Max Verstappen noted recently that being cast into the underdog role had reshaped the way some fans viewed him, and he seems to have been proven right. His late emergence as a championship threat in a season that had otherwise been dominated by McLaren earned him a massive 51% of your votes.

Behind him, Lando Norris’s ascent to world champion status was rewarded with just under a quarter of the votes at 24%. But it seems that many were unmoved by Oscar Piastri’s performance – the best of his career by far, and good enough to keep him in the hunt until the end. Maybe it was the way his title challenge unraveled late in the season? Whatever the case, only 7% of you gave him the nod.

Honorable mentions went to Carlos Sainz for his two podiums as Williams continues to reemerge from its years in the wilderness, and to Isack Hadjar for a stout rookie season amid the sometimes tumultuous surrounds of Racing Bulls.

NASCAR: KYLE LARSON

By most measures, Denny Hamlin was NASCAR’s standout performer in 2025. He had the most wins, and he dominated virtually the entire championship race at Phoenix… except for the bit that mattered.

But by the two measures that count the most – the championship and the RACER fan vote – it was Kyle Larson’s year. Larson started the year strong, navigated a midseason dip, did what he needed to through the playoffs and then he and the No. 5 team pulled some magic out of their pocket to poach the crown in the final laps of the year. That, possibly coupled with his return to Indy to run the double, was the recipe for 36% of your votes.

Hamlin came away with a respectable 21%, while Shane van Gisbergen’s seeming invincibility on road and street courses caught the eye of 10% of you. Expect that number to spike in future years when he's gotten a handle on ovals.

SPORTS CARS: FERRARI

It was a good year for the tifosi in sports cars, and that was reflected in the voting. As was the case out on the track though, it was a close thing – the Prancing Horse’s 26% was the smallest vote share across all categories. But it was well-earned in a season that yielded four wins on the bounce and the title in the WEC’s Hypercar class, and GT wins in both WEC and IMSA.

Porsche’s prototypes endured a frustrating year in the WEC, but made up for it by winning the GTP crown in IMSA. Throw the ongoing potency of the 911 GT3 R into the mix, and you end up with 17% of the RACER reader vote.

Just behind Porsche was Aston Martin, which might have earned a large chunk of its 15% vote share purely for the incredible noise its V12-powered Valkyrie generates in IMSA.