The circuit was designed by D3 Motorsport Development, the same firm responsible for the Surfers Paradise Street Circuit in Australia, in partnership with MGP's Moroccan affiliate. Construction was overseen by Groupe Menara. The track runs along the Route de l'Ourika and Boulevard Mohammed, skirting the walls of the Royal Garden in the Agdal district. To demarcate the track, more than 2,500 concrete impact blocks and extensive debris fencing were installed.
The original layout, used from 2009 through part of the 2010s, was a flat oval-influenced circuit of 4.545 km running in an anticlockwise direction, featuring a hairpin at one end and chicanes along the straights. The character of the track was considered straightforward: predominantly flat, with limited variation in corner type.
The circuit's inaugural race took place on 3 May 2009 as the third round of the 2009 World Touring Car Championship season. This made it the first international car race held in Morocco since the 1958 Moroccan Grand Prix at the Ain-Diab Circuit in Casablanca, a gap of more than 50 years, and the first WTCC event held anywhere in Africa. The return of top-level touring car racing to North Africa was received as a symbolic moment for the expansion of the FIA's calendar into new markets.
The WTCC and its successor series, the World Touring Car Cup (WTCR), returned to Marrakesh regularly through 2019, establishing the venue as one of the most consistent non-European stops on the touring car calendar.
In December 2015 it was announced that the circuit would undergo a significant redesign. For the 2016 FIA WTCC Race of Morocco, only half of the original oval-style layout was retained and the remainder was replaced with a new infield section, creating a more varied and challenging course of approximately 2.971 km featuring 14 turns. This shorter, more technical layout became the permanent configuration for subsequent events and was the circuit used for Formula E's Marrakesh ePrix.
The Marrakesh ePrix became a fixture on the Formula E calendar from the 2016–17 season onward. The 2.971 km circuit's blend of tight hairpins and short straights created races characterized by overtaking opportunities under braking. The Formula E race was held in Marrakesh in 2016, 2018, 2019, 2020, and 2022, with the event occasionally disrupted by scheduling changes or global circumstances. The race did not take place in 2017 or 2021.
Beyond touring cars and Formula E, the Marrakesh circuit has hosted rounds of the Auto GP series (2012–2014), the FIA Formula Two Championship (2010), and the TCR World Tour (2024). The circuit's calendar has fluctuated with the fortunes of the series that use it, and the venue has served as an entry point for international motorsport into North Africa across multiple categories.
Formula One's expansion into Africa has been discussed at various levels, with Stefano Domenicali, CEO of Formula 1 Group, publicly identifying North Africa and Morocco as possibilities for a future Grand Prix. Morocco's historical connection to Formula One — the 1958 Moroccan Grand Prix was a World Championship round — and the country's existing motorsport infrastructure make Marrakesh or another Moroccan venue a plausible candidate for any African Grand Prix, though no contract had been confirmed as of the mid-2020s.