The circuit was constructed in 1919 and designed as a banked oval with a track width of twelve metres and steep curves. Its configuration made it one of the fastest racetracks in Europe during the 1920s, with average speeds of up to 140 km/h achievable on the straights. The venue could accommodate up to 50,000 spectators and was promoted to the public as a destination for bicycle, motorcycle, and automobile racing, while simultaneously functioning as Opel's proprietary test and development facility.
The setting within woodland near the Rhine plain gave the track a character distinct from the urban venues of the era. The combination of steeply banked curves and a generous track width allowed sustained high speeds, which drew both manufacturers seeking performance data and spectators drawn by the spectacle of cars at the edge of their capability.
The Opel-Rennbahn served a dual purpose as a public racing venue and as Opel's factory test track. Among the notable figures who began or advanced their careers at the circuit were Jimmie Simpson, Guido Mentasti, and Hermann Lang — the latter going on to become one of the dominant Grand Prix drivers for Mercedes-Benz in the late 1930s.
The facility's most technically remarkable moment came when Opel chose it as the proving ground for the Opel RAK.1, a rocket-propelled experimental car that attracted widespread public and press attention. The flat geometry of the straight sections was suited to the uninterrupted acceleration runs the rocket car required, and testing at the Rennbahn gave Opel the controlled environment needed for an experiment that had no precedent in European motoring.
As the 1920s progressed, the opening of other major German circuits drew racing events and competitor interest away from Rüsselsheim. The AVUS in Berlin, the Nürburgring in the Eifel, and the Hockenheimring in Baden all offered longer circuits, larger facilities, and the prestige associated with major national or international events. By 1930 fewer events were being held at the Rennbahn, and its role as a competition venue contracted accordingly.
Racing use at the Opel-Rennbahn ceased entirely around 1946. After the end of the Second World War the site was temporarily occupied by the United States Army. In 1949 the lease between Opel and the City of Mainz — which owns the land — expired. To facilitate tree planting on the banking slopes, holes were cut into the embankments in subsequent years. In the 1960s, part of the home straight was demolished to allow construction of the L3012 state road, severing the circuit's continuous oval profile.
Despite these modifications, the steeply banked curves have remained largely intact for over a century. The outline of the oval remains identifiable in aerial observation, and the banking itself is a distinctive landscape feature within the surrounding woodland. In more recent decades the site was incorporated into the Rhein-Main Regional Park as an industrial heritage monument. Since 2013 a small viewing platform with information boards has extended into the north curve, providing public access to the structure and interpreting the circuit's history. The site is currently operated as a waterworks by the City of Mainz, one of several layers of use the land has accumulated since Opel's departure. The Opel-Rennbahn is recognised as a founding chapter in German motorsport history, predating by several years the circuits that would define the country's racing identity through the mid-twentieth century.