Calder Park Raceway itself dates to 14 January 1962, when the Australian Motor Sports Club held the inaugural meeting on a bitumen track carved from farmland near the community of Diggers Rest. Champion racer and Melbourne tyre retailer Bob Jane purchased the facility in the early 1970s and developed it into a multi-discipline complex hosting road racing, drag racing, and rallycross. Jane extended the road circuit from 1.609 km to 2.280 km in 1986, and from the outset his ambitions extended well beyond the existing layout.
Jane had made multiple visits to the United States, attending events at Charlotte Motor Speedway and Daytona International Speedway and tracking NASCAR's rising profile on Australian television. In 1981 he struck a deal with Bill France Jr., head of NASCAR, to bring stock car racing to Australia. Ground was broken for the Thunderdome in 1983, and because no Australian engineers had experience building high-banked speedway ovals, specialists were imported from the United States to oversee construction.
The finished circuit is modelled on a scaled-down version of Charlotte Motor Speedway, with 24-degree banking on all four turns, a 4-degree banked front stretch, and a 6-degree back straight. Its "double dogleg" front stretch and start/finish line positioned on a straight section make it technically a quad-oval, though it has been widely described as a tri-oval since opening. The track was originally known as the Goodyear Thunderdome under a naming-rights arrangement with the Goodyear Tire and Rubber Company. It was officially opened by the Mayor of Keilor City Council on 3 August 1987.
The first event incorporating the Thunderdome took place just two weeks after its opening, using a combined layout that linked the oval with the existing National Circuit road course. The race was a 300 km Group A touring car event won by John Bowe and Terry Shiel in a turbocharged Nissan Skyline DR30 RS — the only time a Japanese car has won a race held on the Thunderdome.
AUSCAR — a uniquely Australian form of stock car racing using right-hand-drive versions of the Ford Falcon and Holden Commodore — provided the first race to use the oval exclusively. In a remarkable result, 18-year-old female driver Terri Sawyer won the inaugural AUSCAR 200, leading from near the front throughout a 110-lap race in a Holden VK Commodore.
The headline international event arrived on 28 February 1988 with the Goodyear NASCAR 500, the first NASCAR race staged outside North America. The grid included major Winston Cup names: Bobby Allison, who had won the Daytona 500 just two weeks earlier; Neil Bonnett, the previous weekend's Winston Cup race winner at Richmond; Michael Waltrip; Harry Gant; Morgan Shepherd; Dave Marcis; Kyle Petty; and others. In a pre-race test session, NASCAR's all-time wins leader Richard Petty set an unofficial lap record of 28.2 seconds. Bonnett won the race in a Pontiac Grand Prix from Allison and Marcis. A heavy crash on lap 80 eliminated several cars, including Australian touring car regulars Dick Johnson and Allan Grice, who suffered a broken collarbone.
The event proved popular enough to prompt a return that December for the Christmas 500, won by Morgan Shepherd ahead of Sterling Marlin, the only two competitors to finish on the lead lap. Three-time Indianapolis 500 winner Johnny Rutherford also competed.
AUSCAR continued as the regular series at the Thunderdome. Brad Jones was the dominant force in the category, winning five consecutive championships between 1989–90 and 1993–94, and subsequently winning the NASCAR Superspeedway Series title on his first attempt in 1994–95.
In October 1987 the Thunderdome's early weeks also overlapped with the hosting of the World Touring Car Championship at Calder Park, though that round used the combined road-and-oval layout rather than the Thunderdome exclusively. The race was won by Steve Soper and Pierre Dieudonné in an Eggenberger Motorsport Ford Sierra RS500.
Between 1980 and 1984 Calder Park had hosted the Australian Grand Prix on the road circuit. The 1980 race — open to Formula One, Formula 5000, and Formula Pacific machinery — was won by Alan Jones in the Williams FW07B with which he claimed the 1980 Formula One World Championship. Roberto Moreno dominated the subsequent Formula Pacific-only editions, winning in 1981, 1983, and 1984.
The last events on the Thunderdome layout were held in 1999, the result of a widespread collapse in entry numbers across both AUSCAR and the Australian NASCAR operation. The oval has not hosted competition since.
As of 2023 the road circuit at Calder Park was repaired and returned to use for club and state-level motorsport sanctioned by Motorsport Australia, now under the ownership of Bob Jane's son Rodney. Rodney Jane has expressed hope of one day reviving oval racing on the Thunderdome, which remains structurally intact and is reportedly driveable.
The Thunderdome holds a singular place in motorsport history as the venue for the first NASCAR race outside North America, and as the product of an ambitious private investment — more than A$20 million of Bob Jane's own money among the A$54 million total — in bringing American-style speedway culture to Australia.