Left: Paul Newman in Once Upon a Wheel, 1971 (ABC Television, public domain). Right: Newman's ex-race 1979 Datsun 280ZX (Mr.choppers, CC BY-SA 3.0). Both via Wikimedia Commons.
Plenty of stars own fast cars. A braver group actually straps into them, pulls on a helmet and goes wheel-to-wheel with professionals. Here are 10 celebrities who race, or who have gone all-in on the sport, with the verified facts separated from the paddock talk.
1. Paul Newman
The original Hollywood racer, and still the gold standard.
Verified: Newman caught the racing bug while making Winning (1969) and went on to win SCCA national championships. In 1979 he finished second overall at the 24 Hours of Le Mans in a Porsche 935. He co-founded the Newman/Haas IndyCar team and, at age 70, helped win his class at the 1995 24 Hours of Daytona.
Paddock Talk: Early in his career, Newman reportedly entered races as “P.L. Newman” to keep the Hollywood circus away from the track.
2. Steve McQueen
.jpg?width=1024)
The “King of Cool” was every bit as serious behind the wheel as his movies suggested.
Verified: At the 1970 12 Hours of Sebring, McQueen and Peter Revson finished second overall in a Porsche 908. McQueen drove with his left foot in a cast after a motorcycle crash. That same year, his Porsche 908 ran in the real 24 Hours of Le Mans as a camera car to shoot footage for his film Le Mans (1971).
Paddock Talk: Racing lore holds that McQueen wanted to drive in the 1970 Le Mans race himself, possibly alongside Jackie Stewart, but the film’s backers and insurers wouldn’t allow it.
3. Patrick Dempsey
“McDreamy” traded the scrubs for a fire suit and became one of the most accomplished actor-racers of his generation.
Verified: Dempsey finished second in the GTE-Am class at the 2015 24 Hours of Le Mans, driving a Porsche 911 RSR for his own Dempsey-Proton team. He later played racing driver Piero Taruffi in Michael Mann’s Ferrari (2023).
Paddock Talk: Every time he shows up at a race weekend, fans start asking whether he’ll return to the Le Mans grid. So far he has stuck to historic events and his team role.
4. Michael Fassbender
.jpg?width=1024)
The X-Men star didn’t just dabble. He spent years working his way up the ladder, and Porsche documented the journey in its Road to Le Mans series.
Verified: Fassbender made his 24 Hours of Le Mans debut in 2022 with Proton Competition, sharing a Porsche 911 RSR with Matt Campbell and Zacharie Robichon. He returned in 2023 but crashed out at the Porsche Curves. In 2026 he was back at the Circuit de la Sarthe racing in the Porsche Carrera Cup.
Paddock Talk: Fassbender has said publicly that he wants another shot at the 24 Hours, and fans are betting he’ll be back on the full-race grid.
5. Keanu Reeves
_(cropped).jpg?width=1024)
John Wick drives like he means it, and so does the man playing him.
Verified: Reeves won the 2009 Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race at Long Beach. In October 2024 he made his professional racing debut in the Toyota GR Cup at Indianapolis Motor Speedway, where he spun and finished 25th. He also co-founded Arch Motorcycle and hosted the Disney+ docuseries Brawn: The Impossible Formula 1 Story.
Paddock Talk: Ever since Indy, fans have been waiting to see if he’ll commit to a full season. Reeves has kept everyone guessing.
6. Frankie Muniz
The Malcolm in the Middle star is no weekend hobbyist. He has made racing his full-time career.
Verified: Muniz raced open-wheel cars in the Champ Car Atlantic series in the late 2000s. He then ran a full ARCA Menards Series season in 2023 and moved to the NASCAR Craftsman Truck Series full-time in 2025 with Reaume Brothers Racing, returning with the team for 2026.
Paddock Talk: Muniz has made no secret of his big-league ambitions, and fans love to speculate about a NASCAR Cup Series start someday.
7. Jason Priestley
Long before the reboot era, the Beverly Hills, 90210 star was chasing speed on real ovals.
Verified: Priestley raced in the Toyota Pro/Celebrity Race and moved up to the Infiniti Pro Series (now Indy NXT). In 2002 he suffered a violent crash during practice at Kentucky Speedway, with serious injuries including a broken back.
Paddock Talk: He has spoken about how the crash changed his life, and fans still wonder how far his racing career could have gone.
8. Eric Bana
.jpg?width=1024)
The Aussie actor’s longest relationship might be with a car.
Verified: Bana has owned his 1974 Ford XB Falcon coupe, nicknamed “the Beast,” since he was a teenager. He crashed it hard during the 2007 Targa Tasmania rally, and the story became his documentary Love the Beast (2009), featuring Jay Leno and Jeremy Clarkson.
Paddock Talk: The Beast was rebuilt after the crash, and Bana is reported to still bring it out for events back home in Australia.
9. Brad Pitt
.jpg?width=1024)
Pitt doesn’t hold a racing license, but he put in more track time than most actors ever will.
Verified: For F1 (2025), Pitt played veteran driver Sonny Hayes. He drove modified Formula 2 cars dressed as F1 machines, filmed during real Grand Prix weekends, with Lewis Hamilton on board as a producer. The film became one of the biggest hits of Pitt’s career.
Paddock Talk: With box office numbers that big, talk of an F1 sequel has been swirling through the paddock ever since.
10. Ryan Reynolds
After making Welsh football famous, Reynolds turned his attention to Formula 1.
Verified: In 2023, Reynolds joined an investor group, alongside Rob McElhenney and others, that bought a stake in the Alpine F1 Team.
Paddock Talk: Fans immediately started pitching a Welcome to Wrexham-style docuseries about Alpine. Nothing has been announced, but the internet hasn’t given up hope.
The Checkered Flag
Fame can buy a fast car, but it can’t buy lap time. From Newman’s Le Mans podium to Muniz’s full-time NASCAR grind, these stars earned their stripes the hard way, and a few of them are still chasing the next podium.
Images via Wikimedia Commons under the licenses listed in each caption.
About the Author
