The oval course is the only one of its kind in Japan used for competitive racing. It is a low-banked, 1.549 mi (2.493 km) egg-shaped course, with turns three and four being tighter than turns one and two.
On March 28, 1998, CART held the inaugural Indy Japan 300 at Twin Ring Motegi Speedway, won by Mexican driver Adrián Fernández. CART continued racing at the track from 1998 to 2002. In 2003, Honda entered the Indy Racing League and the race joined the IRL schedule. The track also hosted a single NASCAR exhibition race in 1998 and the season finale of the NASCAR Winston West Series in 1999.
Honda did not win a race on the oval for its first six years of operation. In 2004, Dan Wheldon took the first Honda win on the oval. In 2008, Danica Patrick became the first woman to win an IndyCar race at the track, beating Hélio Castroneves. The 2011 season was the last for IndyCar at Motegi, dropped from the calendar as organizers sought to maximize viewing audiences. The 2011 race was held on the road course due to damage to the oval resulting from the 2011 Tōhoku earthquake. Since then, the oval has not been used for competitive racing and has served as additional parking during MotoGP events, though it continues to host Honda's annual Thanks Day event.
The track length is disputed between series. NASCAR timing and scoring use 1.549 mi (2.493 km), which was also used by CART from 1998 to 2002. The IRL measured the length as 1.520 mi (2.446 km) in 2003, and that figure was used in all subsequent races through 2010.
Mike Skinner won the only NASCAR Winston Cup Series exhibition race at the track in 1998, the Coca-Cola 500, driving the No. 31 Chevrolet for Richard Childress Racing. The race was notable as the first oval-track NASCAR race in Japan and the first in which Dale Earnhardt and his son Dale Earnhardt Jr. competed against one another. Kevin Richards won the NASCAR West Series race at the track in 1999.
The road course is 4.801 km (2.983 mi) long and shares garage and grandstand facilities with the oval, but is otherwise entirely separate. The road course runs clockwise, the opposite direction from the oval. Access between the two courses requires teams to cross the road course pit and front straight, making simultaneous racing on both tracks impossible.
The course is built in a stop-start straight-hairpin style and is exceptionally flat by Japanese standards, with only a slight elevation rise towards the hairpin. The track can be configured in three ways: the full course or two shorter variants using connecting roadways, with the shorter configurations typically used for junior formula events such as Formula 4 and FJ1600.
The road course currently hosts rounds of the Super Formula Championship and Super GT each year, as well as Super Taikyu, the Asia Road Racing Championship, the Formula Regional Japanese Championship, and Ferrari Challenge Japan. It hosted the Pacific motorcycle Grand Prix from 2000 to 2003 and has hosted the Japanese motorcycle Grand Prix since 2004.
Sightlines for road course races are notably poor: the grandstands are positioned further back than usual and the oval blocks much of the road course from view, requiring large-screen televisions. Seating outside the grandstand is limited to infield areas and along the 750 m backstraight. Access to the venue more broadly is constrained by only two entry and exit points via a two-lane public road, minimal nearby accommodation except for an on-site hotel, and very limited train connections. The stated capacity of approximately 65,000 is dictated largely by traffic flow rather than actual seating, which is estimated at nearly 100,000 for road-course events and 80,000 for the oval.
In addition to the main racing complex, the venue features a second road course called the North Short Course for karting and Formula 4 events, a 0.250 mi (0.402 km) dirt track for modified and sprint car racing, and an outdoor trials course for the FIM Trials world championship.
Outside of racing, the facility includes the Honda Collection Hall, which houses historic Honda racing and production cars and motorcycles, and Honda Fan Fun Lab, showcasing next-generation Honda technologies including robotics and fuel-cell vehicles. In 2009, a cafe opened at the venue named after the Gran Turismo video game series.
The unofficial all-time track record is 1:29.757, set by Tomoki Nojiri during qualifying for the 2021 2nd Motegi Super Formula round.
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