Braves, Reds to play 2025 regular-season game at famed Bristol Motor Speedway, per report

Major League Baseball is joining forces with the motorsports world. Next season the Cincinnati Reds and Atlanta Braves will play a game at Bristol Motor Speedway, one of NASCAR's most iconic venues, reports The Athletic . An official announcement is expected later this week.

Bristol Motor Speedway is located near the Tennessee/Virginia state line and about 90 miles north of Asheville, North Carolina. It seats approximately 150,000 fans for NASCAR events and has rarely hosted non-motorsport events. In 2016, Tennessee and Virginia Tech played a college football game on the infield that drew 156,990 fans, a record for an NCAA football game.

In addition to international games (London, South Korea, etc.), MLB has also played games at unique venues in the United States in recent years. Here are some recent examples:

• June 20, 2024: St. Louis Cardinals vs. San Francisco Giants at Rickwood Field in Birmingham, Alabama
• Aug. 12, 2021 and Aug. 11, 2022: Field of Dreams Game in Dyersville, Iowa
• July 3, 2019: Braves vs. Miami Marlins at Fort Bragg
• June 13, 2019: Detroit Tigers vs. Kansas City Royals in Omaha, Nebraska

The Little League Classic has been played annually since 2017 in Williamsport, Pennsylvania. This year's game will feature the Tigers and New York Yankees on Aug. 18.

As non-division rivals, the Braves and Reds are scheduled to play two series in 2025: May 5-8 in Atlanta and Aug. 1-3 in Cincinnati. The Braves and Reds both have a scheduled off-day on Friday, July 31, so that Aug. 1 series opener is as good a guess at a date for the Bristol Motor Speedway game as any.

The largest crowd ever for an MLB game is 115,300 for an exhibition game between the Boston Red Sox and Los Angeles Dodgers at the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum on March 29, 2008. It is the only MLB game ever with more than 100,000 people in attendance.