The first race to be held on the track was a local event organized by the Oakville Light Car Club in June 1961.

Unlike many historic motorsport venues, Mosport's track layout has remained mostly unchanged from its original form.

The Can-Am first visited the track in its inaugural season in 1966, and Mosport hosted at least one event in every year of the series' history, except 1968.

Driver Dino Crescentini of Rochester Hills, MI – a ten-year veteran of vintage racing – lost control of his 1977 Wolf Dallara Can-Am car, which previously had been driven by Gilles Villeneuve.

The most recent fatality was in 2018 when 61 year old former Pro Mazda driver Jeff Green speared off the racetrack at turn 8, and slammed into the barrier.

Two of those prior owners, Norm Namerow (who owned the track through his publishing company, CanTrack, until his death) and Harvey Hudes, have both been inducted into the Canadian Motorsport Hall of Fame for their contribution to the sport in Canada.

In 1998, Panoz Motorsports purchased the facility, and in 1999, the newly formed American Le Mans Series visited Mosport for the first time.

The academy itself was originally established at Shannonville Motorsport Park, when owners Charlie and Brett Goodman acquired the cars and equipment of the former Spenard-David Racing School and teamed with then-Bridgestone/Firestone Canada Inc. Mosport Speedway was a 0.80-kilometre (1⁄2 mi) oval speedway located on the northwest corner of Canadian Tire Motorsport Park.

The track hosted a weekly Saturday night stock car racing program from May to September for 24 years.

[13] It was announced in September 2013 that Canadian Tire Motorsports Park was chosen to host an annual round of the IMSA SportsCar Championship beginning in 2014.

The unofficial fastest ever recorded lap was taken by Rinaldo Capello, in an Audi R10 TDI, in qualifying for the 2008 Grand Prix of Mosport, with a time of 1:04.094.