CART was born from a dispute between leading team owners and the United States Auto Club (USAC), the long-standing sanctioning body for American championship racing. Through the 1970s, team owners led by Dan Gurney grew increasingly frustrated with USAC's management — including the loss of a lucrative Marlboro sponsorship due to enforcement failures, inadequate race purses, and poor promotion of non-Indianapolis events. In early 1978, Gurney authored what became known as the "Gurney White Paper," drawing inspiration from Bernie Ecclestone's success in organizing Formula 1 team owners through the Formula One Constructors Association.
The death of eight top USAC officials in an airplane crash in April 1978 created an organizational vacuum that accelerated the break. In November 1978, Gurney, Roger Penske, Pat Patrick, and other leading owners formally proposed changes to USAC's board; the proposal was rejected. The first CART race was held on March 11, 1979, with the Sports Car Club of America initially sanctioning the series. USAC initially attempted to ban all CART drivers from the 1979 Indianapolis 500, but CART obtained a court injunction allowing its cars to qualify.
By 1982 the CART PPG Indy Car World Series was widely recognized as the American national championship in open-wheel racing. In 1983, USAC agreed to allow CART to add the Indianapolis 500 to its points standings, though USAC retained sanctioning authority over the race itself. The series expanded rapidly, absorbing prominent road racing venues from the declining Can-Am series — Road America, Mid-Ohio, and Laguna Seca — and taking over street races in Detroit and Long Beach from Formula 1, before expanding to Toronto and Cleveland.
In 1988, CART joined ACCUS, allowing foreign drivers to compete without risk to their FIA Super Licences. The former Formula 1 champion Emerson Fittipaldi won the CART title in 1989, drawing international attention. Stars from South America and Europe followed, and the series became a valuable global television property. Nigel Mansell, the 1992 Formula 1 World Champion, switched to IndyCar and won the CART title in 1993. The series featured prominent teams run by Roger Penske, Carl Haas, Chip Ganassi, and Dan Gurney, alongside leading manufacturers including Ford-Cosworth, Chevrolet, Mercedes-Benz, Honda, and Toyota. Chassis suppliers included Lola, Reynard, Swift, and March.
Champ cars used turbocharged engines running on methanol. Goodyear supplied tires exclusively until 1995, when Firestone entered and sparked fierce competition before becoming the exclusive supplier in 2000.
Tensions between CART and Indianapolis Motor Speedway president Tony George came to a head in 1995 when George announced that for the 1996 Indianapolis 500, the top 25 drivers in Indy Racing League (IRL) points would be guaranteed grid positions, leaving only eight spots open to CART teams. CART teams effectively boycotted the 1996 Indy 500, staging the rival U.S. 500 at Michigan International Speedway on the same day. The 1996 race weekend was widely regarded as a public relations disaster for both sides and is broadly credited with starting a sustained decline in the popularity of American open-wheel racing.
The CART-IRL split coincided with the rapid growth of NASCAR, which drew heavily from CART's traditional Midwestern audience. Despite CART maintaining stronger sponsorship, prestige, and driver names in the immediate aftermath of the split, the absence from Indianapolis undermined the series' commercial position. CART teams swept the top six positions at the 2001 Indianapolis 500 — run that year under USAC sanction for the IRL — but the split had already set in motion a downward spiral in television rights revenue and attendance at traditional oval venues.
A series of setbacks compounded CART's difficulties from 2001 onwards. A race at Texas Motor Speedway had to be cancelled on race day due to drivers blacking out at extreme G forces, damaging CART's reputation. The September 11 attacks disrupted the European race calendar. Popular champion Alex Zanardi lost both legs in an accident at the German 500 in 2001. ABC and ESPN, which had broadcast CART races since the series' early years, signed an exclusive deal with the IRL from 2002, forcing CART onto Speed Channel and CBS time-buy arrangements. Honda announced its move to the IRL for 2003, and Team Penske and Chip Ganassi Racing followed. Toyota also departed for the IRL at the end of 2001.
For 2003, after FedEx withdrew as series sponsor, CART rebranded as "Bridgestone Presents The Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford" and ran an almost entirely road course schedule using leased, identical 2.65-litre turbocharged Cosworth V8 engines. CART declared bankruptcy after the 2003 season.
A group of three owners — Gerald Forsythe, Paul Gentilozzi, and Kevin Kalkhoven — acquired CART's assets from bankruptcy and relaunched the series as the Champ Car World Series. Champ Car continued to operate until declaring bankruptcy in early 2008, when its assets and historical records were merged into the IRL's IndyCar Series. IndyCar recognizes the champions and records of both CART and Champ Car in its historical roll of honour.
CART champions included Mario Andretti, Bobby Rahal, Danny Sullivan, Emerson Fittipaldi, Nigel Mansell, Michael Andretti, Alex Zanardi, Jimmy Vasser, Juan Pablo Montoya, Gil de Ferran, and Dario Franchitti, reflecting the series' status as a global showcase for top-level driving talent through its peak years.
Four drivers died at CART-sanctioned events: Jim Hickman at Milwaukee in 1982, Jeff Krosnoff at Toronto in 1996, and Gonzalo Rodriguez and Greg Moore — both in 1999 — whose deaths at Laguna Seca and California Speedway respectively cast a long shadow over the series in its final competitive years.