Development of the circuit was approved in 1989 and construction began soon after, but was delayed by poor weather conditions and disputes over land ownership. A test race open to Superbikes was held in July 1990 to prove the track, and the circuit was officially opened on 10 November 1990 by the New South Wales Minister for Sport, Bob Rowland-Smith. The opening event was the Nissan Sydney 500, an endurance race for Group A touring cars. The winning car was a Holden VL Commodore SS Group A driven by Larry Perkins and Tomas Mezera. The circuit was built and owned by the New South Wales Government; in 1991, after the original funding consortium ran into financial difficulties, the government assumed full ownership. The facility provided 50 team garages, direct paddock access, and a covered 4,000-seat grandstand overlooking the finish line.
Following the inaugural Australian motorcycle Grand Prix held at Phillip Island in 1989, a dispute between the Victorian Government and tobacco industry sponsors gave the New South Wales Government an opening to attract the event. A deal was concluded in October 1990 and the Grand Prix was held at Eastern Creek from 1991 to 1996, before returning to Phillip Island in 1997. The circuit also hosted regular rounds of the Australian Superbike Championship throughout the original layout era.
The circuit's first ATCC touring car round took place in 1992. Eastern Creek hosted the Australian Touring Car Championship — later known as V8 Supercars — most years thereafter until 2008, excluding 1998 and 2006. In 2003 and 2004, the circuit hosted the V8 Supercars season-ending Grand Finale, with Marcos Ambrose winning the round and clinching the championship title on both occasions. In 2009 the circuit was dropped from the calendar in favour of an event on the Sydney Olympic Park Street Circuit, returning in 2012 after the reconfiguration.
From 1992 to 1995, Eastern Creek hosted the non-championship Winfield Triple Challenge, a three-way motorsport festival combining touring cars, Superbikes, and drag racing under the Winfield cigarette brand's sponsorship. Glenn Seton won the touring car element all four years; his team-mate Alan Jones, the 1980 Formula One World Drivers' Champion, won the final running in 1995. The event ended when cigarette advertising was banned in Australia at the close of that year.
The Australian round of the A1 Grand Prix championship was held at the circuit from the 2005-06 season to the 2007-08 season. During the 2006-07 event on 4 February 2007, Nico Hulkenberg set the outright lap record for the original circuit layout with a time of 1:19.142 in the A1 Team Germany Lola-Zytek.
In 2011, a 9 million dollar upgrade — funded by 7 million from the New South Wales Government and 2 million from the Australian Racing Drivers Club — reconfigured the venue into four distinct layouts. The key change was a new link road joining Turns 4 and 9, completed in October 2011, creating the North Circuit (Druitt Circuit). A further 830-metre extension completed in May 2012 created the South Circuit (Amaroo Circuit). Combined with the existing Gardner GP Circuit, the full Brabham Circuit measured 4.500 km. The renaming to Sydney Motorsport Park accompanied the extension's completion in May 2012.
In its original form, Eastern Creek International Raceway filled a critical gap in the Australian motorsport landscape, providing New South Wales with its only purpose-built permanent circuit capable of hosting the motorcycle Grand Prix, national touring car championships, and international club-level events simultaneously. Its role as a government-owned public motorsport facility, open on most weekends of the year to both cars and motorcycles, set a template that continued under the Sydney Motorsport Park identity.