Between 1981 and 1982, Caesars Palace served as a Formula One World Championship circuit, hosting two editions of the Caesars Palace Grand Prix. The venue later hosted two CART IndyCar events in 1983 and 1984 and a round of the Stadium Super Trucks in 2013.
In 1962, cabana motel owners Jay Sarno and Stanley Mallin received a $10.6 million loan from the Teamsters Central States Pension Fund. They began plans to build a hotel on land owned by Kirk Kerkorian. Sarno would later act as designer of the hotel he planned to construct. His vision was to emulate life under the Roman Empire. The original hotel featured 680 rooms and was situated on a 34-acre site between the Dunes Hotel and the Desert Inn. The objective of the palace was to ensure an atmosphere in which everybody staying at the hotel would feel like a Caesar.
The Caesars Palace Grand Prix was established as a Formula One World Championship event in 1981. The circuit was constructed within the hotel's parking lot. The inaugural race in 1981 served as the season finale and was a defining moment for the World Championship. Nelson Piquet finished fifth in the event, securing enough points to clinch his first World Title.
The 1982 Formula One race was won by Michele Alboreto driving for Tyrrell. Despite the prestige of the series, the event was not renewed for the 1983 Formula One season due to poor attendance and financial losses. Following the departure of Formula One, the venue transitioned to hosting open-wheel racing under the CART (IndyCar) sanctioning body. Mario Andretti won the 1983 CART event, and Tom Sneva won the 1984 edition before the open-wheel series was permanently dropped from the venue's schedule.
The racing circuit at Caesars Palace was noted for its physical difficulty. The track was laid out in a counter-clockwise direction, which placed unusual strain on the drivers' necks.
The 1981 Grand Prix was particularly grueling due to the intense desert heat. After finishing the race to secure his championship, Nelson Piquet suffered from severe heat exhaustion and required fifteen minutes to recover. Drivers generally found the circuit unpopular due to these environmental conditions and the repetitive nature of the parking-lot layout.
In its brief history as a primary open-wheel venue, Caesars Palace hosted four major international races:
1981: Caesars Palace Grand Prix (Formula One).
1982: Caesars Palace Grand Prix (Formula One) — Won by Michele Alboreto (Tyrrell-Ford).
1983: Caesars Palace 200 (CART) — Won by Mario Andretti (Lola-Cosworth).
1984: Caesars Palace 200 (CART) — Won by Tom Sneva (March-Cosworth).
Outside of auto racing, the venue has hosted boxing matches since the late 1970s, including bouts between George Foreman and Ron Lyle in January 1976, and Larry Holmes and Muhammad Ali in October 1980. The Caesars Outdoor Arena and the since-demolished Sports Pavilion hosted landmark bouts. In 1991, a National Hockey League preseason game between the Los Angeles Kings and the New York Rangers was held on an outdoor rink built in the Caesars Palace parking lot.
Jeff Campbell of Lonely Planet refers to the hotel as “quintessentially Las Vegas”, a “Greco-Roman fantasyland featuring marble reproductions of classical statuary”. The hotel's design is heavily influenced by Greco-Roman styles. The original hotel featured lanes of cypresses and marble columns as part of a 900 feet (270 m) frontage, with the hotel set back 475 feet (145 m). The car park could accommodate up to 1300 cars. The hotel features replicas of famous statues, including the Rape of the Sabine Women and statues of Venus and David. Water is heavily used, with over 240 million gallons used annually for at least 18 fountains. A 20 feet (6.1 m) high statue of Julius Caesar hailing a taxi lies in the driveway leading to the entrance, and there are replicas of statues of Augustus and Nero.
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