However, the building of the raceway was met with funding difficulties early on and businessman John Edgar provided a much needed cash investment.

[6] The second major event at the track, in November 1957, was a sports car race featuring some of the top drivers of the day, including Carroll Shelby, Masten Gregory and Ken Miles.

[7] Footage exists of classic races like the 1986 Los Angeles Times Grand Prix in which the Chevy Corvette of Doc Bundy, attempting a three-wide pass going into turn 1, hit the Ford Probe of Lyn St. James and the Jaguar of Chip Robinson.

During the 1965 Motor Trend 500 NASCAR race, IndyCar great A. J. Foyt suffered a brake failure at the end of the straight, shot off the road and went end-over-end through the infield at high speed.

Crash crews assumed Foyt was dead at the scene, until fellow driver Parnelli Jones noticed a twitch of movement.

In December 1968, American Formula 5000 champion Dr. Lou Sell crashed and overturned in Turn 9 on the first lap of the Rex Mays 300 Indianapolis-style race, suffering near-fatal burns.

In January 1967, Canadian driver Billy Foster crashed at Turn 9 during a practice-session just prior to the start of qualifying for the Motor Trend 500 NASCAR race, his head striking the wall and causing fatal injuries.

[10] In January 1964, Riverside also claimed the life of 1962–'63 NASCAR champion Joe Weatherly, who refused to wear a shoulder harness and wore his lap belt loosely.

In the 1983 Times Grand Prix, Rolf Stommelen's Joest-constructed Porsche 935 lost its rear wing at the Dogleg and hit two freeway-type barriers sending it into a horrific roll at Turn 9.

Riverside was also home to track announcer Sandy Reed and (along with former LA Rams player Les Richter) Roy Hord Jr.

[14] Carroll Shelby and Skip Barber had racing schools at Riverside to teach students on how to drive around the racetrack and show them the preferred line on how to enter and exit a corner.

When the track was redesigned in 1969 (it had to close for a water relocation project), turn 9 was reconfigured with a wider radius and banked with a dogleg approach added, to reduce strain on the car's brakes.

The NHRA drag strip ran south to north on the backstretch from the runoff to the Bosch Bridge (not shown in diagram), which crossed over the track about halfway between turns 8 & 9.

Due to its proximity to the Southern California entertainment industry, RIR was a frequent filming location for racing for Hollywood movies, television series and commercials.

[16][17] Other shows filmed at RIR include The F.B.I., Quincy, M.E., The Fall Guy, Hardcastle & McCormick and the HBO program Super Dave Osborne.

Film shoots at RIR included scenes from: Good Guys Wear Black (1978) The Betsy (1978), Fireball 500 (1966), Grand Prix (1966), The Killers (1964), The Love Bug (1968), On the Beach (1959), Roadracers (1959), Speedway (1968), Stacey (1973), Thunder Alley (1967) and Winning (1969).

(During this time, track president Dan Greenwood, who succeeded Richter in 1983, was trying to search for Riverside's replacement, Perris and Corona.)

Duda (along with Homart Development Company) turned the "House that Dan Gurney built" (which had him quoting in an episode in SpeedWeek "I'm glad to see it gone"[21]) into a shopping mall which opened in 1992.

The sign that was at State Route 60 and Day Street was removed to make way for both a Lowe's warehouse and a new pair of on/off ramps and Turn 9 of the old track is now home to houses.

In 2003, plans were announced to build a 3-mile (4.8 km) road course with a similar design to the famed Riverside layout in Merced, California.

At the end of the 2023 season, the INDYCAR Thermal Challenge was announced to be held in March 2024, marking a return to major circuit racing in Riverside County.

[23] The fastest official race lap records at Riverside International Raceway for different classes are listed as: From September 21, 1957, to July 2, 1989, 21 people died (19 drivers, 1 spectator and 1 pit crew member) in the track's 31-year history: