Construction of the first Praga R1 prototype was completed in 2012, with official Praga test driver Danny van Dongen conducting the car's first track session on October 10 of that year. Full production began in March 2013, following an agreement with the Supercar Challenge organisation in the Netherlands to create a dedicated class for the car. The chassis incorporates a carbon composite body and a mid-mounted engine configuration, giving the R1 performance characteristics suited to sprint and endurance competition.
The first race for the dedicated Praga class was held at the Slovakia Ring, where Praga Racing had planned to field ten R1s. A strike affecting Spanish customs delayed delivery of wheels manufactured by Braid Wheels, meaning only three cars could start the event. Despite the disrupted debut, Stefan Rosina won the inaugural Praga class race, and van Dongen took the first pole position in the class.
In 2014, the R1 competed across the Supercar Challenge with drivers including Berry van Elk, Carlo Kuijer, Nol Köhler, and van Dongen. A notable milestone came at the Menzo 24 Hours of Zolder, where the R1 completed its first 24-hour endurance race, finishing third in class, driven by Ronald van Loon, Köhler, van Elk, and Kuijer.
From 2017 onward, VR Motorsport became a central operator for the R1T — an evolution of the original R1 — in Dutch and British competition. The team entered the Dutch GT and Prototype Challenge in the CN class in 2017 with drivers Tim Gray, Oliver Hewitt, and Alastair Boulton, achieving multiple podiums and an outright victory at Zolder in their first season. In 2018 the team won the CN class outright, with a standout result being an outright victory against LMP3 machinery at a DTM support race at Zandvoort.
For 2019, VR Motorsport moved to the Britcar Endurance Championship, fielding the R1T with Gray, Grant Williams, and Boulton. The season ended fourth overall and first in class, capped by a second-place finish in the final race at Brands Hatch. That same year, the R1T-F variant driven by van Dongen, Tim Barber, Jesse Gröse, Steven Ferrario, and Paul Blikman finished third overall at the Thunderhill 25 Hours in the United States.
In 2020, VR Motorsport expanded to a three-car Britcar entry. Danny Harrison and Jem Hepworth clinched both the overall and Class 1 titles, with Jack Fabby and Garry Townsend third overall and second in class.
Praga announced in September 2020 that the 2021 Britcar Endurance Championship would include an all-new dedicated Praga category, intended to pave the way for a one-make series in 2022. In January 2021, Praga unveiled a comprehensively revised all-carbon R1, engineered to generate 15 percent more downforce while reducing drag by five percent, with engine upgrades improving throttle response and torque. The first dedicated Praga class race ran at Silverstone in April 2021, fielding eight cars. Guest drivers in that inaugural season included sim racer Jimmy Broadbent and Romain Grosjean protégé Gordie Mutch, among others, underlining the car's appeal to both professional and high-profile amateur competitors.
Alongside the racing programme, Praga developed the R1R, a mid-engined road-legal sports car derived from the R1. Sharing the same engine, transmission, brakes, clutch, and chassis as its racing counterpart, the R1R marked Praga's return to road car production for the first time since 1947. It is slightly smaller in overall dimensions than the track-only R1.
The Praga R1 has appeared in several commercially released racing simulation titles, including Raceroom (2013), Assetto Corsa (2014), Asphalt 9: Legends (2018), and Rennsport (2024), giving the car a profile among sim racing audiences beyond its real-world competition results.