Professional motorsport events generate large volumes of used tires, and in the United States, NASCAR — one of the country’s largest and most popular racing organizations—has established a recycling system to manage this waste sustainably. In each NASCAR race, high-performance race cars can require 9 to 14 tire changes, leading to tens of thousands of tires being used across a single racing season.

To manage this tire waste, NASCAR works with its exclusive tire supplier Goodyear, which has partnered with Liberty Tire Recycling to collect and process the used tires. Rather than selling the tires to teams, Goodyear leases them and retrieves them after each event. Some tires are retained for testing and analysis, while the rest are sent for recycling.

Liberty Tire Recycling, a leading U.S.-based recycler, processes up to 120,000 race tires per year from NASCAR’s top three series. These tires are transformed into useful products such as rubber mulch for landscaping, rubberized asphalt for road construction and racetrack surfacing, crumb rubber, and tire-derived fuel for use in cement kilns and industrial boilers.

This system contributes to waste reduction and resource recovery in a highly demanding industry, aligning with NASCAR’s broader environmental initiatives. For example, during the 2025 Chicago Street Race alone, more than 92,000 tires were recycled through Liberty Tire’s facility in North Carolina.

Read the full article to learn more about NASCAR’s tire recycling efforts.