A horse racing circuit was originally constructed at the Republic County fairgrounds before automobiles arrived. The first recorded automobile race took place on July 4, 1910, when a crowd estimated at between 7,000 and 10,000 spectators watched a three-car battle covering ten laps in just over seven minutes. At that stage the layout was a flat half-mile oval. The banking that gives the track its name was added in a 1932 reconfiguration, transforming the character of the circuit entirely and enabling the short lap times that would later attract national sanctioning bodies.
The grandstands date from the 1930s and were built as a Works Progress Administration project during the New Deal era. The track's geometry is notably more circular than most ovals of comparable length, a feature that, combined with the high banking, contributes to its reputation as one of the most demanding and spectacular dirt ovals on the American short-track calendar.
The International Motor Contest Association (IMCA) staged its first national race at Belleville in 1951, with Frank Luptow winning the Big Cars event — the class now known as Sprint Cars. IMCA continued to sanction the track each year until 1960, when Ernie Derr took the victory, and held a final race there in 1968, won by Ramo Stott.
The Big Car Racing Association (BCRA) took over sanctioning duties from 1965 through 1976. A landmark moment came on August 23, 1968, when a car posted the first sub-20-second lap time at the track during a BCRA event. The O'Reilly National Championship Racing Association (NCRA) subsequently sanctioned racing at Belleville for more than twenty years.
In later decades, the track hosted American Automobile Association (AAA) and United States Auto Club (USAC) events, along with World of Outlaws Late Model Series and World of Outlaws Sprint Cars rounds, establishing its credentials across multiple top-level American dirt-track disciplines.
The track's signature event, the Belleville Midget Nationals, was established in 1978 and quickly became one of the premier midget car races in North America. The winner's list reads as a who's who of American open-wheel talent: Christopher Bell, Bryan Clauson, Jerry Coons Jr., Dave Darland, Kasey Kahne, Kyle Larson, and Brad Sweet all took victories at the Nationals over its four-decade run.
After forty editions, the Belleville Midget Nationals came to a close in 2017. It was replaced the following year by the 305 Sprint Nationals, reflecting a shift in the regional sprint car calendar. In 2020, the 305 Nationals was the only event held at the track, a consequence of the disrupted racing season that year.
In October 2021, the track announced its first Super Late Model race since 2008 — a seven-day "Belleville Dirt Nationals" event scheduled for June 2022, with $25,000 on offer to the Friday night winner and $50,000 to win the Saturday night feature, signaling the venue's ambitions to broaden its high-profile events beyond midgets and sprint cars.
Bryan Clauson, one of the most celebrated Belleville Nationals winners, was involved in a fatal crash at the track on August 6, 2016, during an attempt to compete in 200 races across a single season. He died the following day. The tragedy cast a long shadow over the venue and prompted widespread reflection on safety in American open-wheel dirt racing.
The High Banks Hall of Fame and the National Midget Auto Racing Hall of Fame Museum are both located near the track, underscoring Belleville's central place in the history of American midget and sprint car racing. The WPA-era grandstands remain in use, giving the venue a historic character unusual among active racing circuits.
The Belleville High Banks occupies a singular position in the landscape of American short-track motorsport: a venue where the combination of steep banking, circular geometry, and a century-plus of racing history has made it a benchmark circuit for dirt-track drivers across generations.