Born in Padova, Mazzacurati studied geology at the University of Bologna and qualified as a civil engineer. He began racing in the late 1920s, making early appearances in a Chiribiri and then a Fiat 509. In the late 1920s he graduated to a 2.0-litre straight-eight Bugatti Type 35C, with which he entered the Mille Miglia in both 1929 and 1930 alongside co-driver Amedeo Bignami, retiring on both occasions. He also contested the 1930 Coppa Ciano at the Montenero circuit in Livorno (retired) and the Grand Prix du Maroc the same year. At the 1930 Trieste-Opicina hillclimb he finished second overall, just twenty seconds behind the winner, who was driving an Alfa Romeo. According to some sources, he had a distant family connection to Tazio Nuvolari, though this has not been confirmed.
Around the early 1930s Mazzacurati relocated to South Africa to pursue civil engineering projects. These included the construction of Cape Town's Hout Bay Harbour, road-building in the interior of the country, and involvement in tin mining in Swaziland.
In 1935 he founded the Eagle Racing Stable in Cape Town, a dealership that imported European competition machinery to South Africa. Its inventory included the Bugatti T35B and T35C, the Alfa Romeo Monza, and the Maserati 6C-34; some cars had passed through Tazio Nuvolari's hands before being acquired by Mazzacurati.
The 1936 South African Grand Prix was a handicap race of eighteen laps held on the Prince George Circuit — an 18.62-kilometre public-road course on the western outskirts of East London, in the coastal strip between the Buffalo River and the Indian Ocean. Mazzacurati won the race outright in a Bugatti T35B. Second was Jean-Pierre Wimille in a Bugatti T59, third was Pat Fairfield in an ERA R4A.
Mazzacurati returned to the same race in 1937, finishing third. In 1939 he again finished third, this time driving a semi-works Maserati 6CM. Also in 1939 he entered the Grosvenor Grand Prix, held on a 7.4-kilometre street circuit in Cape Town, but did not finish.
At the outbreak of the Second World War, Mazzacurati was interned in a concentration camp in South Africa as an Italian national. He made several escape attempts during his internment. After the war he returned to Italy.
His final competitive start came at the 1954 Mille Miglia, sharing a Fiat 500C with co-driver Arturo Giacomelli. They retired. Mazzacurati died in Rome on 17 April 1985, aged 81. His son Carlo Mazzacurati (1956–2014) was a prominent Italian film director and screenwriter.