A local preconditioning high-order discontinuous Galerkin (DG) method is introduced to enhance the efficiency and accuracy of the density-based approach for low-speed flows. The method is based on the time-derivative preconditioning technique typically employed in finite volume methods. Traditional approximation methods that only precondition low-order derivatives lead to incompatibility of the equations. To extend the preconditioning technique to the DG method, we employ an analytic preconditioning mass matrix derived from the DG formulation of the preconditioned Navier–Stokes equations. Modified numerical flux functions and a self-adaptive local velocity truncation parameter are employed for DG systems with preconditioning. We demonstrate the efficiency and accuracy of the preconditioned DG method using explicit and implicit schemes for steady flows and a dual-time scheme for unsteady flows. The method has been implemented and used to compute a variety of flow problems, including inviscid and laminar flows, utilizing various degrees of polynomial approximations. Computations with and without preconditioning are performed to analyze the influence of spatial discretization on the accuracy and convergence of the DG solutions at low Mach numbers. Numerical results underscore the enhanced accuracy and convergence properties of the proposed method for low-speed flows, indicating significant performance improvements over traditional methods.