Born in Vladivostok in Russia's Far East, Shulzhitskiy raced go-karts competitively from the age of eight to sixteen, winning multiple city championships. His progress stalled when the absence of major racing circuits in the local area made further development impossible. He satisfied his racing instincts by driving his Mazda MX-5 at track events while pursuing his studies, graduating from Far Eastern Federal University in 2011 with a degree in oriental studies and studying Japanese at the same time.
He had little experience with Gran Turismo before entering GT Academy. He bought a PlayStation 3 in 2011 specifically to play Gran Turismo 5, and could only play a few hours a week given his work commitments. He entered GT Academy Russia without strong expectations and nonetheless emerged as champion from a field of more than 30,000 online competitors, winning the title at Silverstone in 2012. He says he inherited his love of motorsport from his father and had watched Formula 1 since the age of five, with Ayrton Senna as his early hero.
Shulzhitskiy joined the three other regional GT Academy winners — Peter Pyzera, Steve Doherty, and Wolfgang Reip — in a three-month training programme running from November 2012 that included domestic race events in the United Kingdom, culminating in an entry to the Dubai 24 Hour race in January 2013. The group needed to complete race events at Donington to secure their international race licences; that part of the programme was completed without incident.
In Dubai, racing alongside Roman Rusinov and Lucas Ordóñez as well as Doherty and Reip in two Nissan 370Z GT4 racecars, Shulzhitskiy and his teammates finished 21st overall and second in the SP3 class on his international debut.
Following the Dubai result, Shulzhitskiy joined Nissan GT Academy Team RJN to contest the Blancpain Endurance Series and the FIA GT Series in 2013. He secured his first class podium in the Blancpain Endurance Series at Le Castellet, where he finished second in class. Just three races into the Blancpain season that result arrived, with Gran Turismo's official documentation noting it as a brilliant performance.
In 2013, Shulzhitskiy stepped up to prototype competition, making his FIA World Endurance Championship debut with Greaves Motorsport. That same year, Nissan launched the NISMO Global Driver Exchange programme, giving its roster of drivers opportunities to race in various series around the world. Shulzhitskiy took part in the MMER 12-hour race at Sepang International Circuit in Kuala Lumpur through this initiative, and also made his LMP2 debut at the Shanghai round of the FIA World Endurance Championship.
His Nissan Motorsport racing driver contract ran from September 2012 to December 2015. Subsequent commitments included working as a Motul brand ambassador in Russia from 2016 to 2017. His competition history covers the 24 Hours of Le Mans, 24 Hours of Spa, 24 Hours of Dubai, the FIA WEC, ELMS, Blancpain Endurance Series, FIA GT, and VLN Nordschleife.