The team was founded by Jan "Flash" Nilsson as Flash Engineering in 1996, coinciding with the creation of the Swedish Touring Car Championship. Volvo, already competing in the British Touring Car Championship since 1994, partnered with the newly formed team from Halmstad. Volvo provided financial support and the cars, while Flash Engineering supplied operational expertise. Nilsson himself won the STCC in its inaugural 1996 season and again in 1997 driving Volvo machinery.
In 1998 the team switched to the Volvo S40 Super Touring, and relocated to Karlstad in 2000. Volvo claimed the Manufacturer's Championship in 2002 with Flash Engineering winning six of the season's eighteen rounds. Following the introduction of Super 2000 regulations in 2003, the team took over technical development of both engines and chassis from Volvo. The resulting Volvo S60 S2000, originally built by Prodrive and further developed in-house, delivered another Manufacturer's Championship in 2003.
In 2005, Nilsson sold Flash Engineering to Christian Dahl, and the team was renamed Polestar Racing. Tommy Rustad won the 2009 STCC Drivers' Championship with the squad aboard a Volvo C30 S2000, and 2010 brought the STCC Teams' Championship. Thed Björk claimed back-to-back STCC Drivers' titles in 2013 and 2014, with Polestar Racing also winning the Teams' title in both seasons.
For the 2011 WTCC season Polestar entered one Volvo C30 in the World Touring Car Championship, driven by Robert Dahlgren. When Volvo announced in July 2015 that it had purchased the Polestar Performance production car tuning division and the Polestar brand, the racing team remained under Dahl's direction and was rebranded Cyan Racing.
Cyan Racing entered the FIA World Touring Car Championship in 2016 with Volvo, partnering with WestCoast Racing to continue its presence in the Scandinavian championship simultaneously. The pairing proved immediately potent: Thed Björk won the WTCC Drivers' Championship in 2017, and the team claimed the Teams' title alongside him, marking a historic farewell as the series transitioned into the World Touring Car Cup format for 2018.
In 2018, Cyan collaborated with Yvan Muller Racing, fielding a pair of Hyundai i30 N TCR with drivers Yvan Muller and Thed Björk. The season yielded the WTCR Teams' Championship. For 2019, Cyan Racing switched to Lynk & Co, running four Lynk & Co 03 TCR cars for Björk, Muller, Yann Ehrlacher, Santiago Urrutia and Ma Qing Hua. The team claimed the WTCR Teams' title again.
The 2020 WTCR season brought the greatest individual honour in Cyan's Lynk & Co chapter: Yann Ehrlacher was crowned Drivers' Champion, with the team also claiming the Teams' Championship. Ehrlacher then made history in 2021 by becoming the first driver ever to defend the WTCR Drivers' title, with Cyan Racing once again taking the Teams' title — completing an unprecedented run of back-to-back double championships.
Cyan Racing's record across STCC, WTCC and WTCR demonstrates consistent excellence over more than two decades. From Nilsson's inaugural STCC title in 1996 through Björk's WTCC crown in 2017 to Ehrlacher's consecutive WTCR championships in 2020 and 2021, the organisation has proved capable of winning at every level it has entered. The team's successive partnerships with Volvo, Hyundai and Lynk & Co — all under the Geely Group umbrella — reflect both its adaptability and its status as one of touring car racing's most accomplished operations. Cyan also launched the Volvo P1800 Cyan road-legal restomod in 2020, reflecting the team's deep connection to Swedish automotive culture beyond the race track.