In 1969, David Sloyer, Earl Walker, and Arthur Montgomery acquired 750 acres (300 ha) of farmland in Braselton, Georgia, with the intention of building a world-class road racing facility. The track was rapidly constructed in six months after a Can-Am race cancellation led organizers to choose Road Atlanta as a replacement venue. The first race took place on September 13, 1970, a 300 km Can-Am event won by Tony Dean in a Porsche 908/02, with Vic Elford taking pole in a Chaparral 2J and Stirling Moss serving as Grand Marshal.
Throughout the 1970s, Road Atlanta hosted top-level series including Can-Am, Formula 5000, IMSA Camel GT, and Trans-Am. The Sports Car Club of America (SCCA) held its annual national championship, the SCCA Runoffs, at Road Atlanta from 1970 to 1993. The first road race in NASCAR Busch Grand National Series history was held at the track in 1986. The track was sold in 1978 and changed ownership multiple times, eventually leading to bankruptcy in 1993 under the Whittington Brothers (Don and Bill). A partnership of business executives Frank Drendel, Jim Kanely, Eddie Edwards, George Nuse, and Bill Waddell purchased the track and spent three years making improvements, including new construction, renovations, track widening and resurfacing, and landscaping.
The "esses" between turns three and five are a famous section of the track. Turn 12 is a downhill, diving turn.
In November 1996, Don Panoz acquired Road Atlanta, making Braselton the base for his motorsports ventures. Panoz initiated the first major changes to the track, removing the "Dip" and introducing a chicane at the end of the long back straight. These modifications brought the track up to FIA standards, enabling it to host international events. A new pit and paddock area was constructed on the infield, and a 10,000-seat terrace area was built around the new Turn 10 complex.
Major racing resumed in 1998 with the inaugural Petit Le Mans endurance race. This event garnered international attention, featuring entries from the Le Mans-winning Porsche factory team. The 1998 Petit Le Mans saw a Porsche 911 GT1 experience a "blowover" accident, lifting its front end over a hump, backflipping, and flying into the side barriers. Similar incidents had occurred previously, including Denny Hulme's McLaren M20 in the 1972 Can-Am season and an open-top BMW V12 LMR in the 2000 race, reminiscent of Mercedes-Benz CLR somersaults.
Petit Le Mans has continued as an annual marquee event for the American Le Mans Series (ALMS). Before the 2007 Petit Le Mans, the entire track surface was repaved. This work also involved moving the walls in the esses further from the track to enhance driver safety and spectator sight lines. In late winter 2007–2008, turns 4 and 12 were reconfigured, primarily for the safety of motorcycle racers, with the racing line for cars remaining largely unchanged.
In April 2008, Road Atlanta hosted the 4th stage of the Tour de Georgia, a major cycling stage race, which was run using standard racing bikes. The circuit is also used for local cycling events, where it is run counterclockwise (in reverse) to address safety concerns from the downhill Turn 11 to Turn 12, creating a steep climb and a safer route for cyclists. The October 2008 Petit Le Mans attracted a four-day crowd of 113,000 people, with an average weekend crowd of nearly 80,000 fans.
In September 2012, IMSA Holdings purchased the track as part of its acquisition of Panoz Motor Sports Group, with the goal of combining the Grand-Am and American Le Mans Series. The NASCAR K&N Pro Series East announced its return to the track in October 2013. In December 2017, Road Atlanta hosted its first 24 Hours of LeMons event, the Kim Harmon Scrotium 500, with the series scheduled to return in 2018. In 2019, the facility became Michelin Raceway Road Atlanta following a naming rights agreement between Michelin and IMSA Holdings. In 2020, Michelin Raceway hosted the PNC Atlanta 10 Miler: Extreme Hill Edition and 4k Races due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The outright unofficial all-time track record is 1:01.200, set by Marc Gené in a Ferrari F2003-GA during a 2018 Ferrari Corsa Clienti event. The SCCA National Championship Runoffs, which were held at Road Atlanta from 1970 to 1993, are scheduled to return in 2027 and 2028.
Road Atlanta has been featured in numerous video games, beginning with the 1985 Commodore 64 game Racing Destruction Set. It appeared in the 1999 PC racing simulator Sports Car GT, the Xbox video game Forza Motorsport and all its subsequent entries, Electronic Arts' F1 series ('01 – '02), and the PlayStation 2 game Le Mans 24 Hours. Scratch-made versions have been created for rFactor, Papyrus' NASCAR Racing 2003 Season, and BeamNG.drive, and it is also available on iRacing.com. In November 2022, the track was added to the PlayStation game Gran Turismo 7 as part of update 1.26, released to mark the series' 25th anniversary.
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