The 2025 Daytona 500 will kick off this year’s NASCAR season, which will see the Cup Series head to Mexico City for the first time in the sport’s history.

But could NASCAR find its footing in Europe? Former F1 and NASCAR driver Juan Pablo Montoya doesn’t quite think so.

Juan Pablo Montoya: NASCAR is “Donald Trump racing”

When it comes to motorsport, Europe and America do things differently.

You can pin that as much on the cultural differences as you can on the simple infrastructure of each continent.

Over in Europe, centuries of conquest meant that robust road networks had existed to connect the disparate ends of various empires. When it came time to put cars through their paces, the easiest way to do it was send them off down those existing roads — and from there came Grand Prix racing.

In America, where no such roads existed, racing was largely done on horse tracks located in local fairgrounds. Thus was the birth of oval racing, and stock cars were a favorite for that kind of competition.

But in 2025, NASCAR is looking to expand its horizons. As motorsport has grown in popularity around the globe, the Cup Series has scheduled its first-ever race in Mexico City and has plans to continue expanding around the globe.

Juan Pablo Montoya, though, feels this move may not be the smartest for the series, telling OnlineCassino.br that “it’s difficult for [NASCAR] to go outside the USA” — at least as far as Europe is concerned.

“I don’t think bringing that to Europe would work,” Montoya said — and he would know. The Colombian racer found success in both Formula 1 and in NASCAR but previously admitted that he enjoyed the lack of political wrangling in the Cup Series, as well as its more push-comes-to-shove racing style.

“In Europe, they’re more about the cleaner and finer racing,” Montoya explained to OnlineCassino.br, “where NASCAR is more rough. People like the rough racing. People like the aggression.

“It’s Donald Trump racing. It suits America.

“I used to really look forward to it. Every time we did restrictor plate racing for me it was really exciting. There’s so much to it.”

Montoya expects that the Cup Series will work in Mexico “because they really like racing and they don’t have a big GT following,” but trying to build a foundation elsewhere would be a challenge.

“It’s just a different world,” he explained.

“The guys that are good there are very good drivers, but they’re very good at that.”

Read next: From moonshine running to land speed records: The unlikely history of NASCAR