Sports car racing at the Norisring began in 1967 as a 200-mile exhibition event without championship affiliation. By 1970 the race had joined the Interserie calendar, gaining status as a genuine championship round. When the Deutsche Rennsport Meisterschaft (DRM) emerged in 1973 as a new national series, the two shared the Norisring; from 1974 to 1977 the DRM became the outright holder of the Trophy, with the sole exception of 1975 when the award went to a European GT Championship race.
After the DRM withdrew from holding the Trophy, non-championship races were staged under the Norisring Trophy name between 1978 and 1985. When the DRM itself folded at the close of 1985, the newly created ADAC Supercup series took over the Trophy. The Norisring shared the 1986 and 1987 Supercup rounds with the World Sports-Prototype Championship before the Supercup series folded in 1990.
The event transitioned to touring cars in 1990 when the national Deutsche Tourenwagen Meisterschaft (DTM, the original series) adopted the Norisring Trophy as a regular fixture. Twin-race formats were used throughout the early 1990s until that series too ended in 1996, with its final year contested under the International Tour Car Championship banner. A Super Touring formula-based series then held twin-race events at Nuremberg through 1999.
A revived Deutsche Tourenwagen Masters series launched in 2000 and reclaimed the Norisring Trophy for its calendar. The opening year continued the twin-race tradition before the event settled into a single, longer race from 2001 onwards, in keeping with the Trophy's original 200-mile concept.
The 1971 Norisring race is remembered with particular solemnity following the death of Pedro Rodríguez, the Mexican Formula 1 and sports car champion, during that event. The race was subsequently known in his memory for a period.
The BMW M1 Procar Championship also appeared at the Norisring in 1980 as part of the weekend's support programme, one of several high-profile support categories the event has attracted over the decades. The ADAC GT Masters currently serves as the support series for the DTM at the circuit.
The Norisring weekend traditionally combines multiple series across its race days, but only one race each year carries the official Norisring Trophy designation — typically the longest race of the event, run at approximately 200 miles. Other series run shorter races in support. Although the DRM raced at Nuremberg every year between 1974 and 1985, it served as a support event on several of those occasions rather than as the Trophy holder itself.
The longevity of the Norisring Trophy across nearly sixty years reflects the circuit's enduring appeal despite its urban, temporary nature. Its street circuit character gives the Nuremberg event a distinct identity within the DTM calendar, and the Norisring remains one of the few permanent fixtures on the German motorsport calendar to have passed through so many distinct eras of the sport — from Interserie sports cars and 1970s touring car battles to the modern manufacturer-driven DTM.