Watch the Entire Nürburgring 24 Hours Race Live Right Here

The Nürburgring 24 Hours returns this weekend.

If you've only ever followed Formula 1, NASCAR, or IndyCar, it will all seem slightly unhinged. More than 150 cars, dozens of classes, professional factory drivers sharing tarmac with ambitious amateurs, and 24 straight hours around a circuit that is definitely hostile.

Naturally, that’s why people love it.

First held in 1970, the Nürburgring 24 blends the modern Grand Prix circuit with the infamous Nordschleife to create a roughly 25-kilometer lap through Germany’s Eifel mountains. Officially, the track has 73 corners.

The 2026 ADAC Nürburgring 24 Hours race officially starts on Saturday, May 16, 2026, at 9:00 AM Eastern Time. You can watch all the action right here on AutoGuide in the embedded YouTube player below.

This year’s race carries added attention because Red Bull's F1 star, Max Verstappen, headlines one of the strongest GT3 fields the event has assembled in recent memory. Verstappen will drive for his own Mercedes-AMG Team Verstappen Racing alongside Lucas Auer, Jules Gounon, and Daniel Juncadella in an AMG GT3 entry that immediately becomes one of the favorites outright.

The SP9 class — effectively the overall GT3 category — once again features the manufacturers you’d expect: Porsche, BMW, Mercedes-AMG, Audi, Ferrari, Lamborghini, Aston Martin, McLaren, and Ford all represented in various forms.

Manthey Racing returns with its Porsche 911 GT3 R squad led by Kevin Estre, Ayhancan Güven, and Thomas Preining, while BMW powerhouse ROWE Racing fields multiple M4 GT3 EVOs stacked with factory talent, including Raffaele Marciello, Kelvin van der Linde, Dries Vanthoor, and Augusto Farfus.

Ford also arrives with a pair of Mustang GT3 entries under the HRT banner, continuing the company’s growing global GT3 push. McLaren brings its 720S GT3 with former Formula 1 driver Timo Glock sharing duties, Ferrari’s 296 GT3 appears under the REALIZE KONDO Racing banner, and Aston Martin returns with the Vantage AMR GT3 through Walkenhorst Motorsport. Even Lamborghini remains in the fight with Konrad Motorsport fielding a Huracán GT3 EVO2.

But the Nürburgring 24 Hours has never been solely about the headline GT3 machinery. That’s part of what makes the race so strange and compelling.

Slower touring cars, GT4 machines, production-based hatchbacks, experimental prototypes, and even near-stock BMW endurance builds all share the same narrow ribbon of asphalt. Traffic management becomes every bit as important as outright pace. One poorly timed overtake on a backmarker entering Schwedenkreuz can ruin an entire race in seconds.

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