The championship traces its origins to 1977, when several ADAC and Deutscher Motorsport Verband (DMV) clubs merged their separate Nordschleife endurance events into a unified series. Lubrication-brand Veedol sponsored the prizes for many years, giving rise to the informal nickname "Veedol-Cup." In 2001 the Deutscher Motor Sport Bund officially recognised the championship as the German endurance Meisterschaft, prompting a formal rebrand to the BFGoodrich Langstreckenmeisterschaft (BFGLM). The organising body subsequently adopted the acronym VLN — standing for Veranstaltergemeinschaft Langstreckenpokal Nürburgring — under which the series became internationally known from 2009. In 2020 the championship was renamed the NLS, though the VLN organisation itself retained its name.
In late 2023 a legal dispute arose between the series' rightsholders and the Nürburgring operator over 2024 race dates, and a rival Nürburgring-based series was briefly mooted by the AvD. The 2024 season was reduced to eight races across six weekends; the 2025 season expanded to ten races over eight weekends, including a new NLS Light class.
Each NLS round is a Saturday-only one-day event structured to keep costs manageable. A mandatory drivers' briefing begins at 07:30, followed by qualifying from 08:30 to 10:00. The field departs in three rolling-start groups at noon, with subsequent groups released minutes apart before the fastest cars complete their opening lap in just over eight minutes. Standard races are four hours long, allowing a single driver to compete alone or up to three co-drivers to share the car. The Nürburgring 6 Hours is the headline event and requires two to four co-drivers per entry.
Spectator access around the 25-kilometre Nordschleife is largely free of charge outside of grandstand and paddock areas. Popular vantage points include Adenauer Forst, Karussell, Wippermann, Breidscheid, Brünnchen, and Pflanzgarten.
The NLS runs more than 20 simultaneous classes. The VLN production car group covers normally-aspirated (V3–V6) and turbocharged (VT1–VT3) categories differentiated by engine displacement, plus classes for hybrid and electric vehicles. The 24h-Special group encompasses pure race cars including FIA GT3 cars in the SP9 class, SRO GT4 cars in SP10, and prototypes. A historic H group for cars produced in 2008 or earlier rounds out the structure, alongside cup classes for vehicles such as the BMW M240i and Porsche 911 GT3 Cup that sit outside the main groups.
The NLS is inseparable from the Nürburgring 24 Hours, sharing broadly the same rulebook and competitor base. Weeks around the 24-hour race in May or June are left clear on the NLS calendar so teams can prepare and recover. Several NLS rounds double as official qualifying events for the 24 Hours. The 24-hour race itself is not counted within the NLS championship.
The length of the circuit and the extreme performance spread across the field create safety conditions unlike most professional series. Safety cars are not used; double-yellow flags impose a local 120 km/h speed restriction, and code-60 flags limit speed to 60 km/h. Recovery trucks and course cars travel the full circuit under local yellow conditions. Blind crests and corners are an ever-present hazard as faster GT3 cars approach slower production entries at high relative speed.
Five drivers have died in racing accidents during the championship's history: Wolfgang Offermann in 1986, Wolfgang Scholz in 1998, Carola Biehler in 2000, Leo Löwenstein in 2010, and Juha Miettinen in 2026. Two further drivers died of heart attacks at the wheel, and a marshal and a spectator were also killed in separate incidents in 1977 and 2015.
A distinguishing feature of the NLS is that its main drivers' championship is decided on group-relative finishing positions rather than overall race results. This allows drivers across all performance classes — including those in entry-level hatchbacks such as the Renault Clio, Opel Corsa, and Suzuki Swift — to compete for the overall title against rivals in comparable machinery. The last four drivers' championships before 2023 were each won by entries in the slower production car groups. A separate overall teams' championship, the NLS Speed-Trophy, is contested on aggregate overall results and therefore runs among the fastest GT3 and cup-class cars.
The series is organised by ten member clubs including ADAC-Westfalen, MSC Adenau, Renngemeinschaft Düren, Dortmunder MC, and MSC Sinzig, each affiliated with either ADAC or the Deutscher Motorsport Verband.