The championship was organised by KSO, a subsidiary of Eurosport, and represented an evolution of the former European Touring Car Championship, which had itself only recently been revived. The FIA's decision to grant world championship status brought with it an expanded international calendar compared to the ETCC's European-only footprint.
The technical framework was open to Super 2000 cars, Diesel 2000 cars, and Super Production cars as defined by the FIA. Super 2000 regulations, which limited engines to two-litre four-cylinder units with production-based bodywork, would become the dominant and defining format of the WTCC across its years of operation.
The championship was contested over ten events, of which seven were co-hosted with the 2005 FIA GT Championship, a logistical pairing that helped the new series share circuits and audiences with an established international series. Each event featured two races with a distance of fifty kilometres each. The grid for the first race at each event was determined by qualifying, while the second race featured a reversed-grid order for the top eight finishers from race one — a format designed to generate varied results and promote overtaking.
Points were awarded on a 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 basis to the top eight finishers in each race.
Beyond the main championship, KSO organised two subsidiary competitions to encourage participation from non-factory teams. The Michelin Independents' Trophy was awarded to eligible independent drivers using criteria set by KSO relating to the team, driver, and car. The Michelin Teams' Trophy ran alongside it, open to all participating teams but scored only on the two best classified cars per team from drivers classified as independent. Both trophies used the same 10-8-6-5-4-3-2-1 points format for the majority of races, with doubled points applied at the final two races of the season.
Andy Priaulx clinched the drivers' title for BMW in what was his breakthrough championship season at the highest level of touring car racing. BMW also took the manufacturers' title, establishing the German marque as the dominant force in the new series' opening campaign. Priaulx's precision driving and consistency across the full season made him the natural choice for the honours in a competitive field that included works and independent entries from multiple manufacturers.
The 2005 season established the template for what the WTCC would become across the following decade: a compact, efficient two-race-per-event format, a production-derived technical formula, a mix of factory and independent teams, and a genuinely international calendar. The revival of a world touring car title after an eighteen-year gap was seen as a significant moment for the discipline, and the series grew steadily in the years that followed with the addition of manufacturers including Seat, Chevrolet, Honda, Citroën, and others. The 2005 season's inaugural format — particularly the reversed-grid second race — remained a hallmark of the championship's identity throughout its existence.