The autodrome was commissioned by industrialist Alexandre Lamblin, who engaged engineer René Jamin to design an oval-shaped track measuring 2.548 kilometres, engineered to accommodate vehicles weighing up to 1,000 kilograms at speeds of 220 kilometres per hour. The circuit was initially known as the Autodrome Parisien and featured especially pronounced banking to enable sustained high-speed running. A road circuit extension was added in 1925, broadening the facility's event capability and creating the variety of layout configurations — including the cloverleaf combination — for which Montlhéry became known.
In 1939, the facility was sold to the French government, whose wartime ownership resulted in a prolonged period without maintenance. Following the war, in December 1946, it was sold again to Utac, which has operated it ever since. The last certification for competitive racing was obtained in 2001.
The first race at the autodrome was the 1925 French Grand Prix, held on 26 July 1925 and organised by the Automobile Club of France. Robert Benoist won the race driving a Delage, though the event was overshadowed by the fatal accident that claimed the life of Antonio Ascari, who crashed his Alfa Romeo P2. The French Grand Prix returned to Montlhéry in 1927 and then annually from 1931 to 1937, making the autodrome one of the most regular Grand Prix venues in France during the interwar period.
In July 1926, Violette Cordery led a team that averaged 113.8 kilometres per hour over 8,047 kilometres driving an Invicta, becoming the first woman to be awarded the Dewar Trophy by the Royal Automobile Club — a record run enabled by the circuit's high-speed oval banking.
In 1929, Hellé Nice won the all-female Grand Prix of the third Journée Feminine at Montlhéry, driving an Oméga-Six. Irregular events including the Coupe du Salon, the Grand Prix de l'Age d'Or, and the 1,000 km race were also held at the circuit in subsequent decades.
Montlhéry was a significant venue for motorcycle racing throughout the interwar and postwar periods. The Grand Prix de France was held at the circuit in 1925, 1931, 1935, and 1937. The Bol d'Or, France's prestigious 24-hour endurance motorcycle race, was staged at Montlhéry before the Second World War in 1937, 1938, and 1939, and returned after the war for editions in 1949, 1950, and intermittently from 1952 to 1970. British manufacturers — including Velocette, Norton, and Triumph — dominated the event for most of this period.
The most celebrated motorcycle competitor associated with Montlhéry is Gustave Lefèvre, who holds the record of seven Bol d'Or victories riding a Norton Manx, achieving all of them as a solo rider during the era before regulations permitted two-rider teams. His average speed of 107 kilometres per hour in his 1953 victory exemplified the sustained pace the high-speed circuit demanded.
In 1961, a team organised by British manufacturer Veloce — including managing director Bertram Goodman — set a world speed record at Montlhéry on a near-standard Velocette Venom Clubman, sustaining more than 100 miles per hour for 24 hours in the 500cc class. That record remains unbroken.
The autodrome's utility extended beyond motor sport. In 1933 the circuit hosted the UCI Road World Championships for cycling. In 2010 the banked oval served as the setting for Ken Block's Gymkhana Three video, a widely viewed promotional production for DC Shoes. Fatalities at the circuit include Benoît Nicolas Musy in 1956, and a 1964 accident that killed drivers Peter Lindner and Franco Patria along with three flag marshals.
Montlhéry endures as one of Europe's most historically significant motorsport venues, notable both for the breadth of events it hosted across motor racing, motorcycle racing, cycling, and endurance record attempts, and for the survival of its distinctive banked oval into the twenty-first century. The range of layout configurations available at the complex — oval, road circuit, and cloverleaf combinations — gave it a flexibility that kept it relevant across changing eras of motorsport.