The spa city of Termas de Río Hondo sits on the banks of the Dulce River, approximately 65 km north of the provincial capital Santiago del Estero. The town is a long-established thermal spa resort, and the circuit was developed as part of broader infrastructure investment in the region, which also included a new airport. The circuit first opened in 2008 and hosted national-level Argentine series including TC2000, Top Race V6, Turismo Nacional, and Formula Renault Argentina before its comprehensive reconstruction.
The 2012 rebuild, overseen by Jarno Zaffelli, transformed the facility to international standards capable of hosting FIM World Championship events. Zaffelli is known for designing and homologating circuits across Europe and the Americas, and the Termas de Río Hondo redesign produced a layout that was accepted by both MotoGP and the World Touring Car Championship.
Argentina previously hosted Grand Prix motorcycle racing at the Buenos Aires circuit in the 1990s; the country's return to the calendar came through Termas de Río Hondo. The Argentine motorcycle Grand Prix was held here in 2014 and 2015 as the third round of the MotoGP season, bringing Grand Prix motorcycle racing back to Argentina for the first time in 15 years.
In 2013, the circuit hosted Rounds 15 and 16 of the World Touring Car Championship as the FIA WTCC Race of Argentina, as well as the first official MotoGP and Moto2 pre-season tests. A 2013 MotoGP race had originally been scheduled but was postponed by one year following the Argentine government's nationalisation of the local Repsol subsidiary — Repsol is the title sponsor of the Honda MotoGP team — which raised safety concerns for the team and prompted Dorna to defer the event.
The Argentine motorcycle Grand Prix continued at the circuit from 2014 through 2019, resumed in 2022 after a gap caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, and ran again in 2023 and 2025.
On 6 February 2021, a fire destroyed the circuit's pit buildings. No fatalities were reported. The grandstand, media centre, and pit garages were subsequently rebuilt, and reconstruction was completed before the 2022 Argentine Republic motorcycle Grand Prix, allowing the circuit to resume international racing without long-term interruption to its World Championship schedule.
The circuit measures 4.805 km, making it one of the longer circuits on the MotoGP calendar. Its layout, designed specifically for FIM Grade A homologation, offers a mix of long straights and flowing corners that suits the speed characteristics of premier-class machinery. The circuit has also attracted interest from IndyCar, with Penske Entertainment CEO Mark Miles and vice president Michael Montri visiting in March 2023 to evaluate the possibility of hosting a future IndyCar race.
The Autódromo Termas de Río Hondo has established Argentina as a regular presence on the Grand Prix motorcycle racing calendar, a status the country lacked for most of the period between the 1990s and 2014. The circuit's reconstruction from a domestic-level facility to an FIM Grade A venue, combined with its role in bringing World Championship events to inland Argentina rather than the traditional Buenos Aires corridor, represents a significant development for motorsport in the region. The WTCC's use of the facility alongside MotoGP demonstrated the circuit's versatility, and its continued presence on the Argentine motorsport calendar has made Termas de Río Hondo one of South America's most active international racing venues.