Smith Undergrad is Racing to Success on Social Media

Oscar Casasola ’24 is working toward obtaining his finance, marketing and management degrees, but his career as a social media influencer is already off to the races.

Since launching his media company–OC Racing–in 2020, Casasola has amassed a following of over 50,000 subscribers and 10 million views for his tech reviews and sim racing content.

His journey to going viral all stems from his love for cars and motorsports, more specifically, Formula 1. From the logistical and business side to the passionate fanbase and intense competition, Casasola says that the sport has captivated him for much of his life.

The downside, he says, is that there’s an immense financial cost associated with participating in motorsports. But when he discovered simulated racing–sim racing, for short–Casasola says he jumped at the opportunity to participate in the sport he loves in a virtual capacity and at a more accessible cost.

“I’ve always been very entrepreneurial and loved creating marketing and social media content, so when I looked into making sim racing videos, I found a huge gap that wasn’t being capitalized on,” says Casasola. “I felt that I could do better than other current creators and I knew that if I could engage viewers then I could eventually create a path to work with sponsors and continue to grow the brand”

The opportunity to get his hands on the latest developments of wheels, chassis and peripherals, and make recommendations to viewers is one that Casasola says he doesn’t take for granted. Apart from having the latest gear, it has provided him with multiple revenue streams in the form of sponsorships, ad revenue, and affiliate programs to name a few.

Balancing content creation efforts with his academic endeavors at the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business certainly comes with its fair share of challenges, Casasola says, but it’s also an incredibly unique position to be in.

Managing both, he says, comes down to discipline and the ability to stay organized. Casasola, who was born in Costa Rica and moved to Maryland at a young age, says the decision to attend UMD was an easy one and that he always knew he wanted to pursue a business degree. Currently pursuing three degrees, Casasola says he appreciates being able to immediately apply what he’s learning in the classroom to his own content creation and see its impact firsthand.

“I’m excited to start learning more about graphic design, growing my brand and image, and community building,” says Casasola. “From a finance perspective, those accounting classes have helped me in conversations with my CPA just in terms of being able to understand terms and how I can better achieve my goals.”

Casasola says he never intended for content creation to be a full-time job. To him, this is potentially a pit stop along the way to achieving his aspirational goal of working on the business side of a Formula 1 team or in some other aspect of motorsports. And he’s already beginning to it come to fruition as he was flown out to Canada at the start of the fall 2022 semester to get behind the wheel of a Porsche Cayman GT4 supercar at the Canadian Tire Motorsport Park circuit.

But until he fulfills his ultimate goal, Casasola says he’s focused on expanding his social media presence. OC Racing, he says, is much more than just a YouTube channel, it’s also a budding multimedia company that’s branching out into real-world motorsports, merchandising and much more. There’s plenty of work ahead, he says, but it’s all about enjoying the ride.

“This definitely spans more than just a kid creating videos on YouTube, I consider it more as my own media company,” says Casasola. “I’m really interested in growing my brand and cultivating that sense of community so that I can implement that into all aspects of the content I’m putting out on every platform.”