Carbon fiber reinforced sheet molding compound (CF-SMC) is a ready-to-mold prepreg material. Compression molding of CF-SMCs is a promising process to deliver lightweight and high-volume composite parts for the automotive industry. Nowadays, compression molding process is still relying on costly and labor-intensive trial-and-error practices. Virtual manufacturing of SMC parts through physics-based simulations is favored for its potential to replace the trial-and-error approach and shorten the process development stage. Proper material characterization and modeling of CF-SMC prepreg system are the fundamental building blocks of accurate and realistic compression molding process simulations. This paper first presents an integrated material characterization roadmap for a CF-SMC prepreg and its corresponding thermosetting resin system. The carbon fibers used in this CF-SMC are about 25mm long. The main chemical species of this resin system are vinyl ester primary backbone, styrene reactive diluent and isocyanate thickening agent. Thermokinetics behavior of the material is characterized using differential scanning calorimetry. Cure kinetics models are developed using Advanced Kinetics and Technology Solutions-Thermokinetics (AKTS-TK) software. Relative viscosity evolution and gel time of the material are studied using a rheometer. Gelation and viscosity models are proposed. A flow-compaction testing fixture is developed to study the CF-SMC prepreg flow under different temperatures and mold closure rates so that the material flow characteristics during compression molding could be better understood. Then the material models developed in this work are implemented into a commercial software package Autodesk Moldflow through Solver Application Programming Interface (API). A simulation of CF-SMC compression molding process is developed using Moldflow. Experimental data is ultimately used to validate the simulation.