The game's origins predate its EA-published release by several years. Development began in early 1997 as a licensed project under Virgin Interactive, initially tied to the IMSA GT Championship as part of a sponsorship arrangement in which Virgin Interactive sponsored the IMSA Supreme GT Series. During this period, the console version carried the working title Sports Car Supreme GT, while the PC version was referred to as Professional Sports Car Racing, both featuring licensed Professional SportsCar Racing (PSCR) branding visible in pre-release advertising.
When Electronic Arts acquired Virgin Interactive's North American division from Westwood Studios, the game came under new ownership. EA chose to delay the release to 1999, rename the title Sports Car GT, and release it without the official PSCR license. The result was two meaningfully different products: the PC version developed by Image Space Incorporated and the PlayStation version handled separately by Point of View.
The PC version features a career mode in which the player progresses through four GT classes — GTQ (qualifying class), GT3, GT2, and GT1 — starting with an initial budget of 100,000 credits to purchase their first car. Prize money from top-three finishes funds car upgrades (brakes, suspension, exhaust, downforce, and ride height) or purchases of more capable machinery. Up to fifteen computer-controlled opponents populate races, and conditions can vary between day and night, with multiple weather states available.
Three fictional circuits — Chatham, Sardian Park, and North Point — supplement the real licensed tracks from IMSA's roster. LAN multiplayer supports up to sixteen human players on PC.
The PlayStation version offers a similar career ladder but with only five opponents, a smaller starting budget of $50,000, and the addition of a time trial mode. Completing the GT1 class unlocks a bonus Paris GT1 category featuring three street circuits set in Paris, France. A "pink slip" multiplayer mode allows two players to wager their cars in head-to-head duels, with the winner's victory recorded across PlayStation memory cards.
Sports Car GT features a range of licensed production-based race cars from manufacturers including BMW, McLaren, Porsche, Panoz, Vector, Mosler, Callaway, Lister, and Saleen. Cars appear with their specific liveries from the 1997 and 1998 IMSA seasons, providing an authentic representation of the GT racing landscape of that period.
The PC and PlayStation versions diverged sharply in their critical reception. The PC version earned favorable reviews; PC Gamer awarded it 83 out of 100, citing its balance of playability and realism. CD Mag gave it 4 out of 5, comparing it to "Need for Speed meets Gran Turismo" and praising both the physics model and the fidelity of car and track representations. Electric Games scored it 7 out of 10, commending the graphics and handling while noting weaknesses in the HUD and the absence of visible damage modeling.
The PlayStation version fared considerably worse. GameSpot gave it 3.8 out of 10, calling it "unpolished" and criticizing its music, physics, and visuals. IGN awarded it 4 out of 10, acknowledging the official car licenses but describing the graphics as outdated "in almost every department." Game Informer considered the graphics "dull" and directed readers toward Gran Turismo or Need For Speed: High Stakes as superior alternatives.
The PC version of Sports Car GT retained an active community after its commercial release. The game's open engine architecture enabled the development of hundreds of user-created mods encompassing additional cars — ranging from period racing machinery to Monster trucks and vehicles dating to the 1920s — and both real and fictional circuits. Engadget later called the PC game a "classic" of the sim racing genre.
In 2005, Image Space Incorporated released rFactor, which used the studio's GMotor 2 engine, a successor to the GMotor 1 engine first developed for Sports Car GT. The lineage from Sports Car GT through rFactor to rFactor 2 (released in 2012) represents one of the more continuous threads of engine development in PC sim racing history, and Sports Car GT is formally recognized as the progenitor of that line.