Las Vegas had a prior motor racing connection through the Stardust International Raceway, which hosted Can-Am events in the late 1960s before being purchased by developers and demolished in 1970. A decade passed before Formula One returned to the city. The impetus for the Caesars Palace event grew partly from the disappearance of the United States Grand Prix at Watkins Glen after the 1980 season: with that slot open, Formula One promoters including Bernie Ecclestone worked to establish a Las Vegas finale to the championship calendar.
The Formula One circuit measured 2.268 miles (3.650 km) and comprised 14 turns. It ran counter-clockwise — an unusual direction that placed exceptional strain on drivers' necks, unaccustomed to turning right as the primary cornering direction. The surface was smooth, and the layout was wide enough to theoretically allow overtaking, with generous sand-filled run-off areas. Conditions, however, were demanding in other respects: desert heat made the Las Vegas autumn races physically gruelling, and the flat, featureless nature of the parking-lot surroundings offered no visual interest for spectators or television.
The 1981 race concluded the Formula One season and was the venue where Nelson Piquet clinched his first World Championship, finishing fifth to secure the title. Piquet needed 15 minutes to recover from heat exhaustion after barely completing the race. The 1982 race was won by Michele Alboreto in a Tyrrell — one of the last victories by a privateer constructor in Formula One for many years. That result could not save the event: Formula One drew only small crowds to Las Vegas, the 1981 race reportedly generated a large financial loss for the hotel, and the circuit was widely criticised by drivers and observers as one of the worst Formula One venues ever used. It did not return to the Formula One calendar after 1982.
After Formula One's departure, the CART Indy car series took over the event for 1983 and 1984. The circuit was substantially reconfigured into a shorter, simpler layout: turns 1, 6, and 10 of the original course were connected in a continuous straight, producing a distorted oval measuring 1.125 miles (1.811 km) with just five turns. Races were contested over 178 laps, covering 200.25 miles (322.27 km). For the 1984 running, the exit of the final corner was widened, boosting lap speeds by approximately 7 mph over 1983 figures.
The CART races did not outlast the Formula One events on the calendar, and after 1984 the circuit was permanently abandoned. The site was subsequently redeveloped and is now occupied by the Forum Shops at Caesars and the Mirage hotel — leaving no physical trace of the racing layout.
The Caesars Palace circuit occupies an ambiguous place in motorsport history. It was a venue of genuine championship significance — Piquet's title decider in 1981 guarantees it a footnote in Formula One records — yet it is remembered almost universally as a failure. The combination of extreme heat, a featureless parking-lot environment, a physically punishing counter-clockwise layout, and poor spectator attendance made it an unwelcome stop on the calendar. It has been described as "an impossibly tight and unedifying circuit that failed to excite drivers or fans."
Las Vegas would not host a Formula One race again until 2023, when the Las Vegas Grand Prix was inaugurated on a 3.853-mile street circuit running along Las Vegas Boulevard, some four decades after the Caesars Palace experiment was abandoned.