One of the earliest Maseratis, the Tipo 26, was driven by Alfieri Maserati with Guerino Bertocchi as riding mechanic at the 1926 Targa Florio, winning the 1,500 cc class and finishing ninth overall. Maserati became very successful in pre-war Grand Prix racing with a variety of engines featuring four, six, eight, and sixteen cylinders. The marque also won the Indianapolis 500 twice, in 1939 and 1940, both times with Wilbur Shaw driving an 8CTF.
In sports car racing, Maserati won the Targa Florio four consecutive times from 1937 to 1940. Giovanni Rocco took the first two wins with a 6CM, while Luigi Villoresi won the final two with a 6CM in 1939 and a 4CL in 1940.
Maserati's post-war factory sportscar effort began in 1954 as Officine Alfieri Maserati, entering the second season of the World Sportscar Championship. The marque scored points in all but one year of the championship's first era from 1953 to 1961. In 1956 Maserati placed second in the championship, with Stirling Moss and Carlos Menditéguy winning the 1000 km Buenos Aires in a 300S, and additional victories at the Nürburgring. In 1957 the team again placed second, with wins at Sebring and Rabelöfsbanan. At the end of 1957 Maserati retired the factory team from racing, though cars continued to be built for private customers. In 1960 and 1961, Stirling Moss and Dan Gurney, and then Lloyd Casner and Masten Gregory, gave the Maserati Tipo 61 consecutive wins at the ADAC 1000 km Nürburgring.
Maserati participated in Grand Prix racing during the 1930s and in Formula One proper during the 1950s and 1960s. The works programme delivered nine Grand Prix victories for the factory team. The marque's centrepiece was the Maserati 250F, in which Juan Manuel Fangio won part of the 1954 World Championship of Drivers and the full 1957 championship. Financial difficulties forced the works withdrawal from Formula One in 1958, though private entrants continued to race the 250F until 1960.
In the 1960s, Maserati supplied V12 engines to the British constructor Cooper. The Cooper-Maserati T81 won the 1966 Mexican Grand Prix with John Surtees and the 1967 South African Grand Prix with Pedro Rodríguez.
Maserati returned to international sportscar competition in 2004, entering the Maserati MC12 in the FIA GT Championship. From 2005 onwards, the MC12 fielded by the Vitaphone Racing Team won five consecutive FIA GT Teams' Championships and four Drivers' Championships. In the 2010 FIA GT1 World Championship, Michael Bartels and Andrea Bertolini driving for Vitaphone won the inaugural GT1 World Championship for Drivers, with Vitaphone also taking the Teams' title.
The Maserati Biturbo Group A competed in the British Touring Car Championship (1988–1989), the European Touring Car Championship, and the 1987 World Touring Car Championship, where it was entered by Pro Team Italia/Imberti and driven by Bruno Giacomelli, Armin Hahne, and others. Results were not competitive.
On 10 January 2022, Maserati announced its entry into Formula E from the 2022–23 season in partnership with the Monaco Sports Group as Maserati MSG Racing. The team scored its first Formula E victory when Maximilian Günther won the 2023 Jakarta ePrix Race 2 on 4 June 2023. Günther also won the first Tokyo ePrix on 30 March 2024.