The track's origins trace to an airstrip known as O'Neal Flying Field used for flight training after World War II. After the property changed hands, Southland Speedways Inc. was incorporated on April 30, 1951, and the circuit itself was built by C.C. Triplett of Apex, North Carolina, at a cost of approximately $500,000. The facility opened on July 4, 1952, with a 200-mile AAA national championship auto race won by Troy Ruttman in an Offy-powered Kuzma. That inaugural event earned praise from drivers and fans but was not enough to free the track from its startup debt.
Early in 1953 the track was sold at public auction to newly formed Dixieland Speedways Inc., which renamed it Raleigh Speedway and brought in Bill France as promoter. France introduced the NASCAR Grand National Series to the venue that year. The first NASCAR race under lights, the Raleigh 300 held on May 30, 1953, drew 15,235 spectators.
The track was a one-mile paved oval shaped like a paperclip. The front and back straights were separated by only about 500 feet, while the straightaways measured approximately 1,850 feet in length. Turns were banked at 16 degrees and the straights were flat. An infield quarter-mile oval hosted weekly Modified and Sportsman races on Friday evenings.
Seven NASCAR Grand National races were held at Raleigh Speedway between 1953 and 1958. The schedule typically featured one race per year on or around the July 4 holiday, with 1955 seeing two Grand National events. Herb Thomas, Fireball Roberts, and Fonty Flock each won two races at the track — the highest total for any driver. Fonty Flock's 1953 victory, starting from 43rd position, set a record for the worst starting position by a race winner in NASCAR's top series, a mark that still stands tied with Johnny Mantz's win from 43rd at the 1950 Southern 500 at Darlington. Fireball Roberts led the most laps at the track across his career there, a total of 334, and earned the most prize money at Raleigh.
The only fatalities in the track's history occurred on the night of September 19, 1953, during a combined Modified and Sportsman race later called "Black Saturday." Driver Bill Blevins had mechanical trouble and his car stalled on the backstretch just as the field took the green flag. His dark maroon car went unnoticed by race officials and Blevins was struck at close to 90 miles per hour by Jesse Midkiff's car. Both vehicles erupted into flames shooting some 70 to 100 feet into the air. With only two fire extinguishers at the track the fire took considerable time to extinguish. Both Blevins and Midkiff died from their injuries. The incident caused difficulties for race promoters and hardened local political opposition to the facility.
The track changed ownership twice more: it was sold to Middle Creek Investment Company in February 1954, then to a group consisting of H.M. Keith, H.J. Carr, A.G. Crumpler, and G.W. Adcock in January 1955. Under the final ownership group the track hosted the most successful portion of its career, running NASCAR Grand National events through 1958 as well as several NASCAR Convertible Series races. When Daytona International Speedway opened in February 1959 the July 4 Grand National date moved there permanently, removing Raleigh's most important event from the schedule. Noise complaints from nearby residents had compounded the track's difficulties. Raleigh Speedway closed after the 1958 season. The track sat dormant for several years before being demolished and the land sold as part of what is now the Seaboard Industrial Park. A short section of the backstretch pavement, approximately 90 feet, survived in a wooded area of the industrial complex.
Racing returned to the Wake County area in 1962 with the opening of Wake County Speedway, a quarter-mile asphalt oval built by Glenn, Marvin, and Talmadge Simpkins on family land about five miles from the original Raleigh Speedway site. That track became NASCAR-sanctioned in 2020 and continues to operate as a weekly venue. The original Raleigh Speedway site remains largely unmarked.