Apex domains cannot have CNAME records.
Question and response
Question
dig neustar. NS
Answer
neustar. 5 NS c.nic.neustar.
neustar. 5 NS ns5.dns.nic.neustar.
neustar. 5 NS b.nic.neustar.
neustar. 5 NS ns6.dns.nic.neustar.
neustar. 5 NS a.nic.neustar.
neustar. 5 NS ns4.dns.nic.neustar.
Authority
The response has no authority records.
Additional
a.nic.neustar. 77722 A 37.209.192.9
b.nic.neustar. 77722 A 37.209.194.9
c.nic.neustar. 77722 A 37.209.196.9
ns4.dns.nic.neustar. 77722 A 199.7.67.250
ns5.dns.nic.neustar. 77722 A 192.100.59.250
ns6.dns.nic.neustar. 77722 A 198.133.199.250
a.nic.neustar. 77722 AAAA 2001:dcd:1:0:0:0:0:9
b.nic.neustar. 77722 AAAA 2001:dcd:2:0:0:0:0:9
c.nic.neustar. 77722 AAAA 2001:dcd:3:0:0:0:0:9
ns4.dns.nic.neustar. 77722 AAAA 2001:502:100e:0:0:0:0:250
ns5.dns.nic.neustar. 77722 AAAA 2610:a1:1013:0:0:0:0:250
ns6.dns.nic.neustar. 77722 AAAA 2610:a1:1021:0:0:0:0:250
. 0 OPT ; payload 1232, xrcode 0, version 0, flags 0