The race's origin lies in a major restructuring of the WEC calendar announced on 1 September 2017. The FIA and ACO shifted the championship from a conventional autumn-to-summer layout to a so-called super season spanning more than a year, with the 24 Hours of Le Mans staged in the middle as the centrepiece. The prolonged format allowed the following 2019–20 season to return to a compressed single-year structure starting in autumn. As part of this restructuring, Sebring was reintroduced to the WEC calendar for the first time since 2012.
In the original provisional schedule, the race was planned as a midnight 12-hour event running immediately after the conclusion of the IMSA Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring on the same weekend. On 21 September 2017, the race was relabelled the 1,500 Miles of Sebring to distinguish it from its IMSA neighbour. The format was revised again on 4 April 2018: the race was shortened to 1,000 miles or 268 laps with an eight-hour time limit, repositioned to begin at 16:00 on 15 March ahead of the IMSA event rather than following it, and a new pit lane facility was constructed on Ullman Straight for use by WEC competitors.
The inaugural 1,000 Miles of Sebring in March 2019 proceeded as planned and was the sixth round of the 2018–19 WEC season. The 2020 edition, scheduled for 20 March 2020, was cancelled as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. The United States Department of State announced a suspension of travel by non-US citizens from Europe to the United States on 11 March 2020, making it impossible for the majority of WEC teams and drivers — based in Europe — to reach Florida. The WEC announced the cancellation the following day. Plans for the 2020 event had also included a revised start time, moving the race from a 16:00–midnight slot to a 12:00–20:00 window to create a more manageable buffer before the 12 Hours of Sebring the next day.
European travel restrictions remained in place in 2021, preventing a second edition from being staged that year. The race was held in 2022 and 2023 before the contractual arrangement between the ACO and Sebring International Raceway was not renewed. A revised WEC calendar incorporating new venues, including a season-opening prologue and round in Qatar, made it impractical to retain Sebring in its traditional March window. The United States presence in the championship transitioned to the Circuit of the Americas in Austin, Texas.
Sebring International Raceway was built on the site of the former Hendricks Army Airfield, a World War II air base. Its notoriously bumpy surface — a product of the original concrete airfield runway sections — and complex layout of fast straights combined with slow technical sections have defined it as one of the most punishing endurance circuits in North America. The airfield geography also means that the circuit is unusually flat, giving endurance racing there a distinctive character different from purpose-built circuits.
Sebring International Raceway is included in multiple simulation titles, including iRacing and the WEC-focused Le Mans Ultimate. In iRacing, the 12 Hours of Sebring format is one of the flagship endurance events of the iRacing season, with Sebring's surface detail and layout faithfully recreated. The addition of the WEC's 1,000 Miles format to the Sebring event calendar added another dimension to the circuit's competitive identity that carries over into simulation contexts.