Nismo's first competitive motor sport debut was on 1 May 1964 − in their first race they ended up coming just short however it was bitter sweet as the Skyline took all positions from 2nd to 6th.

[2] The company's intention following the merger was to specialize in sportscar racing, but it also provided support for teams competing in the domestic F3 series.

The following year they developed the Skyline GT-R for racing as well as building the 500 evolution editions for road use.

Most Datsun, Nissan, and Infiniti branded cars have performance parts available from Nismo, either in production or as old stock.

In Japan, the V35 Skyline and Z33 Fairlady have both received several levels of Nismo tuning packages (E-Type, S-Tune, R-Tune, and S1 packages), with a full track spec Fairlady Z debuted at the 2005 Nismo Festival of Speed held at (formerly) Fuji International Raceway.

The first Nismo-branded car was the 1987 Skyline R31 GTS-R Group A evolution special limited to 823 examples.

Both cars featured weight-saving, aerodynamic, performance and reliability improvements necessary for the rigours of Group A competition.

Due to rarity the GT-R Z-tune can exceed US$500,000 in the car market[citation needed].

Very limited numbers of both models were sold in 1997, and both command high resale prices even today.

Nismo street tuned vehicles have been sold at Nissan dealerships for years, and come with full warranties.

Notable Nissan drivers in this era include Masahiro Hasemi, Kazuyoshi Hoshino, Masahiko Kageyama and Toshio Suzuki.

From 2011 to 2016, Nissan was involved in the FIA World Endurance Championship and European Le Mans Series as a LMP2 engine supplier.

In 2017, Nissan entered the DPi class of the WeatherTech SportsCar Championship with Extreme Speed Motorsports.

Nissan announced in June 2014, that Nismo will enter the LMP1 category to fight for the FIA World Endurance Championship against Audi, Toyota and Porsche.