Motorsport is a popular spectator sport in Australia, although there are relatively few competitors compared to other sports due to the high costs of competing. The oldest motorsport competition in Australia is the Alpine Rally which was first staged in 1921 followed by the Australian Grand Prix, first staged in 1928. The most widely watched motorsport category is Supercars, especially at the Bathurst 1000. Other classes in Australia include Australian GT, Formula 3 and Formula Ford (open wheel racing), Superbikes, as well as various forms (cars and bikes) of speedway racing.
Australia hosts a round of many major international series, including the Australian Grand Prix, a round of the FIA Formula One World Championship, Rally Australia, part of the FIA World Rally Championship, and the MotoGP Australian Motorcycle Grand Prix. Other international series, such as the World Superbike Championship, Speedway Grand Prix and Champ Car have held events in Australia.
Open-wheel racing
Formula One
The most popular event is the Australian Grand Prix, currently held at Albert Park in Melbourne. It is attended by more than 300,000 spectators per year and attracts free-to-air metropolitan television ratings, of over 1 million viewers, and is televised internationally as part of the Formula One World Championship.
The Australian Grand Prix has been run continuously (with the exception of 1936 and 1940–46 due to World War II) since 1928, though it did not become a round of the Formula One World Championship until 1985. For the first 11 years of F1, the Australian Grand Prix was held on the Adelaide Street Circuit in Adelaide, South Australia, as the last round of the championship. Adelaide played host to several title deciders; for example, the 1986 title, where Alain Prost successfully defended his championship after Nigel Mansell's left rear tyre exploded; the 1994 title was also decided in controversial circumstances, after Michael Schumacher collided with his rival Damon Hill, putting both out of the race and giving Schumacher his first of seven Formula One World Drivers' Championships by one point. In 1993 it was announced that from 1996 the Grand Prix would move to Melbourne at the Albert Park Circuit, replacing Adelaide as the host city. The move to Melbourne also changed the race's position in the calendar, with the Grand Prix becoming the opening round of the championship, a position it held until the pandemic (with the exception of 2006 and 2010).
No Australian driver has won the Australian Grand Prix since Alan Jones won at Calder in 1980 driving his Williams FW07B-Ford, and no Australian has finished on the podium since John Smith finished second in 1983. Since becoming a round of the World Championship in 1985 only 5 Australian drivers have actually raced in the Australian Grand Prix. They are Alan Jones (1985–1986), David Brabham (1990, 1994), Mark Webber (2002–2013) Daniel Ricciardo (2012–2022) and Oscar Piastri (2023–).
Two Australians have won the World Driver's Championship: Jack Brabham, who won the title on three occasions, including becoming the first (and so far only) driver to win the World Championship in a car of his own design, manufacture and name when he won his final championship in driving the Repco V8 powered Brabham BT19 and BT20; and Alan Jones, who won in , giving Williams its first Drivers' and Constructors championships. As of , Oscar Piastri (McLaren F1 Team) is the only starting Australian driver in Formula One. Of the 14 Australians who have driven in Formula One, only Brabham (14), Jones (12), Webber (9) and Ricciardo () have won a Formula One Grand Prix.
Formula Three
Australian Formula 3 has been the name applied to two distinctly different motor racing categories, separated by over twenty years. The original Australian Formula 3 was introduced in 1964 based on the FIA Formula 3 of the period and intended as a cost-efficient open wheel category to run at state level for amateur racers. It was discontinued at the end of 1977. Formula 3 was reintroduced to Australia in 1999, again based on FIA Formula 3. An Australian Formula 3 Championship was sanctioned by the Confederation of Australian Motor Sport for the first time in 2001. Following the withdrawal of national championship status, an Australian Formula 3 Premier Series was contested in 2016.