The C7.R was officially unveiled at the 2014 North American International Auto Show in Detroit. Its first public testing appearance came at Mazda Raceway Laguna Seca, where the car ran in camouflage. New livery and final details were revealed on January 13, 2014. The road car's development had notably drawn on lessons learned from the C6.R programme, meaning those properties carried over into the race car's design.
In its debut year the C7.R competed against eleven other cars across an eleven-race IMSA season. The car produced a mid-season streak of four consecutive victories at Long Beach, Laguna Seca, Watkins Glen and Canadian Tire Motorsports Park. Jan Magnussen and Antonio Garcia, driving the number 4 Corvette, accumulated enough points to claim the Driver Championship with 125 points. Oliver Gavin and Tommy Milner ran the number 3 entry.
Corvette Racing recorded three wins in a ten-race season. The year opened with victories in both major IMSA endurance races: the 53rd Rolex 24 at Daytona and the 63rd Mobil 1 12 Hours of Sebring, both won by Jan Magnussen, Ryan Briscoe and Antonio Garcia. The most significant result of the season came at Le Mans, where Oliver Gavin, Tommy Milner and Jordan Taylor drove the number 64 Corvette to victory in the GTE-Pro class — Corvette Racing's eighth win at the circuit overall. That single year delivered victories at Daytona, Sebring and Le Mans, the three events that together constitute endurance racing's unofficial triple crown.
The car received aerodynamic updates for 2016, including a revised diffuser to comply with new Group GTE regulations. The season opened with a class-winning photo finish at the Rolex 24 at Daytona, the number 3 and number 4 Corvettes separated by 0.034 seconds. Car number 4, driven by Oliver Gavin and Marcel Fassler, won the 12 Hours of Sebring. At Le Mans the team qualified last in the GTE-Pro category and finished seventh and tenth. The number 4 Corvette won the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship GTLM class, claiming the drivers', team and manufacturers' championships as well as the North American Endurance Cup. Corvette Racing also recorded its 100th overall team victory with a win at Lime Rock.
Four Ford GT entries joined the GTLM class among twelve competitors. Corvette Racing produced victories at Sebring, COTA, Long Beach and VIR. The number 3 Corvette of Antonio Garcia, Jan Magnussen and Mike Rockenfeller won the drivers', team and manufacturers' championships — a repeat of the 2016 clean sweep.
The GTLM field contracted to nine entries. Ford GT took five wins, Porsche three, and BMW two, leaving a single win for the number 4 Corvette at Long Beach. However, the number 3 Corvette accumulated enough points through consistency to edge the number 67 Ford GT for the team championship — a third consecutive title. Garcia and Magnussen recorded eight podium finishes across eleven races.
The C7.R's final IMSA season produced no outright victories as the car approached the end of its competitive life. The number 3 Corvette recorded three second-place and three third-place finishes, tying with the number 911 Porsche for second in the GTLM class standings.
The C7.R's six-year IMSA campaign produced championships in 2016, 2017 and 2018, along with the landmark 2015 Le Mans GTE-Pro victory and the same year's Daytona-Sebring-Le Mans triple. It is one of the most decorated Corvette Racing platforms in the programme's history, succeeded by the mid-engined C8.R beginning in 2020.