Racing team owners, coalescing around Dan Gurney, grew increasingly critical of USAC's management through the 1970s, citing the loss of Marlboro's series sponsorship in 1971, the presence of dirt tracks on the schedule, inadequate purses, and poor marketing of non-Indianapolis events. Gurney's 1978 "Gurney White Paper" outlined a new organisation modelled on Bernie Ecclestone's Formula One Constructors Association, calling for team owners to collectively manage their own championship. In November 1978, Gurney and other leading owners including Roger Penske and Pat Patrick presented their proposal to USAC's board; its rejection prompted the formation of a standalone series. The first CART race was held on 11 March 1979, initially sanctioned by the Sports Car Club of America. USAC attempted to ban CART teams from the 1979 Indianapolis 500, but CART obtained an injunction allowing its cars to qualify.
By 1982, the CART PPG Indy Car World Series was broadly recognised as the American national open-wheel championship. From 1983 to 1995, an arrangement with USAC allowed Indy 500 results to count toward CART championship points, embedding the race within the season despite remaining under USAC sanction. The series expanded steadily through the 1980s, taking over the Detroit Grand Prix and Grand Prix of Long Beach from Formula One, and adding street races in Toronto and Cleveland. CART also established the first full-time travelling driver safety team in American motorsport.
In 1988, CART joined ACCUS, enabling foreign drivers to compete without risk to their FIA Super Licences. Emerson Fittipaldi's 1989 title was followed by a wave of international talent. Nigel Mansell, the 1992 Formula One World Champion, switched to IndyCar in 1993 and won the championship. Juan Pablo Montoya, Al Unser Jr., Bobby Rahal, and others drove the series to its international peak during this era.
Tony George, who became president of Indianapolis Motor Speedway in 1989, grew concerned that the series' reliance on foreign drivers and street circuits was marginalising American oval-racing talent. In July 1994 he announced the creation of the Indy Racing League, a cost-controlled, oval-only series sanctioned by USAC. After the 1995 Indianapolis 500, George announced that the top 25 drivers in IRL points would be guaranteed 25 of the 33 Indy 500 grid positions, the so-called "25/8 Rule." CART refused to accept this and withdrew from Indianapolis, staging a rival event — the US 500 — at Michigan International Speedway on the same day. The 1996 US 500 was marred by a twelve-car opening-lap crash; Jimmy Vasser won. The collective damage to open-wheel racing's profile was severe and lasting.
After competing lawsuits, CART agreed to revert to its formal acronym and dropped the IndyCar branding; its cars were marketed as "champ cars." In the years immediately after the split, CART retained most of the prestigious events, established sponsors, and high-profile drivers, while the IRL's primary asset remained Indianapolis. CART completed a public stock offering on NASDAQ under the symbol MPH, raising US$100 million.
From 1999 onwards, a series of setbacks eroded CART's position. The deaths of drivers Gonzalo Rodríguez and Greg Moore in the same season raised safety concerns about high-speed oval events. In 2001, a race at Texas Motor Speedway was cancelled on the day of the event after drivers reported blackout-inducing g-forces in qualifying. The series' first European foray, the German 500, was overshadowed by the 11 September attacks and the race-day accident in which Alex Zanardi lost both legs. ABC/ESPN's decision to sign an exclusive deal with the IRL for Indianapolis 500 coverage in 2002 deprived CART of its most valuable broadcast slot. Honda announced its move to the IRL the same year, and Chip Ganassi Racing and Team Penske followed. With Cosworth-Ford as the sole remaining engine supplier, CART re-branded as "Bridgestone Presents The Champ Car World Series Powered by Ford" for 2003 and ran a near-complete road course schedule before declaring bankruptcy at season's end.
A consortium of team owners — Gerald Forsythe, Paul Gentilozzi, Kevin Kalkhoven, and Dan Pettit — acquired CART's assets out of bankruptcy and relaunched the series as the Champ Car World Series. Continuing financial difficulties caused Champ Car to file for bankruptcy in February 2008, at which point its assets and historical records were merged into the IRL's IndyCar Series. IndyCar recognises the champions and records of both CART and Champ Car within its unified history.
Champ cars were single-seat, open-wheel machines with mid-mounted turbocharged engines burning methanol, sculpted undertrays generating ground effect, and interchangeable aerodynamic kits for oval and road-course configurations. Teams typically sourced chassis from Lola, Swift, Reynard, or March; Goodyear supplied tyres exclusively until Firestone entered in 1995 and ultimately became exclusive supplier in 2000. Engine manufacturers including Cosworth, Ilmor (branded as Chevrolet, then Mercedes-Benz), Honda, and Toyota leased factory-developed units to teams throughout the 1990s.
Four drivers died in CART-sanctioned events: Jim Hickman at Milwaukee Mile in 1982 practice, Jeff Krosnoff at the Molson Indy Toronto in 1996, and Gonzalo Rodríguez and Greg Moore in separate accidents at Laguna Seca and California Speedway respectively in October and November 1999.
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