The site was built in 1906 as a horse racing facility on the California Exposition fairgrounds. Automobile racing began there in 1907. Auto racing was active in 1907, 1912, and continuously from 1946 through 1970. The oval measured 0.99 miles and used a rice-hull surface rather than conventional dirt — a characteristic unusual within the AAA/USAC championship circuit. A 2.1-mile (3.4 km) road course with nine turns was laid out in the surrounding parking lots and used for sports car racing from 1955 to 1969, hosting a round of the SCCA National Sports Car Championship in 1955.
The California Exposition relocated to a new site north of downtown Sacramento in 1968. The old fairgrounds closed and were sold for development in 1970. The final day of the old track on 4 October 1970 was marred by tragedy when three drivers were killed in the 100-lap super-modified caged sprint car competition supporting the USAC championship event.
From 1949 to 1970 Sacramento hosted the Golden State 100, a round of the AAA National Championship through 1955 and of the USAC National Championship thereafter. The race was not held in 1951 or 1952.
A.J. Foyt holds the record for most wins in the Golden State 100 with five victories: 1960, 1962, 1964, 1967, and 1968 — all in Meskowski-Offy machinery. Jimmy Bryan won three consecutive editions in 1953, 1954, and 1955. Rodger Ward won in 1957, 1961, and 1963. Other winners included Fred Agabashian (1949), Duke Dinsmore (1950), Jud Larson (1956), Johnny Thomson (1958), Jim Hurtubise (1959), Don Branson (1965), Dick Atkins (1966), and Al Unser, who won the final two editions in both 1969 and 1970.
Several NASCAR Grand National Series races were held at Sacramento on the dirt oval between 1956 and 1961. Lloyd Dane won the inaugural 1956 race from the 15th starting position in a 1956 Mercury. Parnelli Jones won the 1958 edition from pole in a 1956 Ford. Eddie Gray won in both 1959 and 1961; Jim Cook won in 1960. The track also hosted NASCAR Pacific Coast Late Model Division races (predecessor to the ARCA Menards Series West) between 1956 and 1970.
The Golden State 100 name was revived in 1989 at the new Cal Expo mile track north of Sacramento, run as a USAC Silver Crown event through 2000. George Snider won the first revival edition in 1989. Jimmy Sills dominated the Cal Expo era with four wins: 1990, 1993, 1994, and 1999. Donnie Beechler won in 1995 and 1996, Dave Darland in 1997 and 2000, J.J. Yeley in 1998. Motorcycle racing's Sacramento Mile continues at the new Cal Expo site as part of the AMA Grand National Championship.
Sacramento's two decades on the USAC National Championship calendar made it a regular venue for the dominant figures of American open-wheel racing — Foyt, Ward, Bryan, Hurtubise, Unser — in the era between World War II and the consolidation of championship racing onto purpose-built superspeedways. The rice-hull surface, fairground setting, and dual-discipline use as both a championship oval and an SCCA road course gave the original venue a distinct identity within the national racing calendar that disappeared with the closure of the old fairgrounds in 1970.