There had been Can-Am racing in Las Vegas at the Stardust International Raceway in the mid to late 1960s, but that facility was demolished in 1970. The Caesars Palace circuit emerged as part of the broader push to diversify the Formula One calendar in the early 1980s, during the same period that produced new American events in Long Beach, Detroit, and Dallas.
The circuit measured 2.268 miles (3.650 km) with fourteen turns for its Formula One configuration. It ran counter-clockwise, an unusual orientation that placed significant strain on drivers' necks, which were conditioned to predominantly clockwise circuits. Wide enough to allow overtaking and equipped with ample sand-filled run-off areas, it offered a glass-smooth surface — yet these qualities did little to endear it to competitors. The flat, enclosed parking-lot environment and the oppressive desert heat made every race physically draining, and the circuit was characterised as "an impossibly tight and unedifying circuit that failed to excite drivers or fans."
The first Caesars Palace Grand Prix in 1981 served as the season finale and became the stage for Piquet's title decider. Although he clinched the championship by finishing fifth, Piquet required fifteen minutes to recover from heat exhaustion after the race, an image that captured the circuit's brutal demands. The 1981 race generated only modest crowds, and the hotel reportedly made a substantial financial loss on hosting it.
The 1982 race was also held in intense heat and was won by Michele Alboreto driving a Tyrrell. It proved to be Formula One's last appearance in Las Vegas, the poor crowds and financial results having made continuation untenable. Nissan/Datsun served as a presenting sponsor of both Formula One races.
After Formula One's departure, the CART IndyCar series took over the Las Vegas race for 1983 and 1984. The circuit was significantly modified for the oval-style discipline, with turns 1, 6, and 10 connected in continuous straights to create a flat 1.125-mile (1.811 km) distorted oval configuration with only five turns. Both races covered 178 laps for a total distance of 200.25 miles (322.27 km). For the 1984 running, the exit of the final corner was widened, lifting lap speeds by approximately seven miles per hour compared to the previous year.
Following the 1984 CART event the circuit was removed from the calendar, and the area was subsequently covered by urban development including the Forum Shops at Caesars and the Mirage hotel.
The Caesars Palace circuit occupies a peculiar place in Formula One history — a venue that delivered a genuinely dramatic championship moment in 1981 yet was almost universally considered unworthy of its place on the calendar. Its location in the parking lot of a Las Vegas casino hotel symbolised, for many observers, the tensions of the early 1980s calendar expansion, when commercial and promotional motives sometimes overrode the sporting quality of venues.
Formula One did not return to Las Vegas until 2023, when the Las Vegas Grand Prix was held on a 3.853-mile (6.201 km) street circuit running through the city's streets including Las Vegas Boulevard, representing an entirely different approach to the challenge of racing in the desert city.