Industrialist Alexandre Lamblin commissioned engineer René Jamin to design the original 2.548 km oval-shaped banked track, initially called Autodrome Parisien. The oval was engineered to accommodate vehicles up to 1,000 kg travelling at 220 km/h, with especially high banking to sustain those speeds. A complementary road circuit was added in 1925 to expand the range of events the venue could host.
In 1939 the track was sold to the French government, which ceased maintenance during the Second World War. In December 1946 ownership passed to Utac, which resumed operations. The last official certification for competitive racing was granted in 2001.
The circuit's first major event was the 1925 French Grand Prix, held on 26 July 1925 and organised by the Automobile Club of France. Robert Benoist, driving a Delage, won the race, but the day was marked by tragedy when Antonio Ascari crashed his Alfa Romeo P2 and died from his injuries. It was the first of many grands prix the autodrome would stage, with the French Grand Prix returning to Montlhéry in 1927 and then continuously from 1931 through 1937.
In July 1926, Violette Cordery led a team that averaged 113.8 km/h over 8,047 km in an Invicta, becoming the first woman to be awarded the Dewar Trophy by the Royal Automobile Club — a landmark recognition of a performance achieved at the autodrome.
In 1929, Hellé Nice drove an Oméga-Six to victory in the all-female Grand Prix at the third Journée Feminine held at Montlhéry, underlining the circuit's progressive role in giving women competitive prominence at a time when that was rare.
Later decades brought irregular but prestigious events including the Coupe du Salon, the Grand Prix de l'Age d'Or, and the 1000 km race.
Montlhéry was equally significant on two wheels. The Grand Prix de France under the UMF (Union Motocycliste de France) was organised there in 1925, 1931, 1935, and 1937, drawing the top worldwide talent. A parallel Grand Prix de France run by the MCF Club ran from 1924 to 1937 with the leading French and British competitors.
The Bol d'Or, France's premier 24-hour motorcycle endurance race, was held at Montlhéry before the Second World War from 1937 to 1939, and returned after the conflict in 1949, 1950, 1952–1960, 1969, and 1970. British machines — principally Velocette, Norton, and Triumph — dominated the results from 1931 to 1959, with occasional victories for Harley-Davidson, Motobécane, BMW, Moto Guzzi, Puch, and Jawa. French racer Gustave Lefèvre, riding a Norton Manx solo for 24 hours, holds the all-time record of seven victories; his 1953 average of 107 km/h remains the benchmark set during the era when a single rider could contest the full distance. In 1969 a Honda Four became the first Japanese machine to win the Bol d'Or at Montlhéry, and in 1970 a Triumph Trident took the last British victory before the race moved elsewhere.
The season-opening hillclimb known as the Côte Lapize, run around the hill of Saint-Eutrope adjacent to the autodrome, served as a showcase for newly prepared engines each spring. In the early 1950s Pierre Monneret appeared there on the factory Gilera Four 500 cc, adding international glamour to the event.
In 1933 the autodrome hosted the UCI Road World Championships in cycling, demonstrating the site's adaptability beyond motorsport.
In 1961, motorcycle manufacturer Veloce mounted a successful 24-hour world record attempt on the circuit using a near-standard Velocette Venom Clubman 500 cc machine. A team of eight riders — including managing director Bertram Goodman and Motorcycling journalist Bruce Main-Smith — averaged just over 100 mph for 24 hours, a record for the class that remained unbroken as of the time of writing.
In 2010 the oval Speed Ring provided the setting for Ken Block's Gymkhana Three video, an automotive exhibition produced as an advertisement for his company DC Shoes, bringing the historic venue to a new global audience.
Montlhéry occupies a rare position in motorsport history as a venue that has been continuously relevant — as a grand prix circuit, an endurance arena, a record-breaking oval, and a test facility — for more than 100 years. The combination of its early-banking oval, the adjacent road course, and its location near Paris made it indispensable to French motorsport's development throughout the interwar and postwar eras. Owned by Utac and retained as a test facility, it endures as a living monument to the sport's pioneering decades.