Porsche has been successful in many branches of motor-racing , scoring a total of more than 23,000 victories. As Porsche offered only small capacity cars in the 1950s and 1960s, they scored many wins in their classes, and occasionally also overall victories against bigger cars. Particular success has been in sports car racing , notably the Carrera Panamericana and Targa Florio , races which were later used in the naming of street cars. Also, they did well in the Mille Miglia and especially 24 hours of Le Mans where they have won 16 times overall (more than any other company), plus many class wins. Many Porsche race cars are run successfully by customer teams, financed and run without any factory support - often they have beaten the factory itself. Recently, 996-generation 911 GT3s have dominated their class at Le Mans and similar endurance and GT races.

The various version versions of the 911 also proved to be serious competitor in Rally as long as the regulations allowed them to compete. Porsche official team was only present in seldom occasion in Rally, but the best private 911s were often close to other brand works car. Jean-Pierre Nicolas even managed to win the 1978 Monte Carlo Rally with a private 911 SC. The Paris Dakar Rally was won twice, too.

Porsche has also participated in Formula One racing, with mixed results; its first foray (as a constructor ) from 1961 to 1962 produced just one win in a championship race, claimed by Dan Gurney at the 1962 French Grand Prix . One week later, he repeated the success in front of Porsche's home crowd on Stuttgart 's Solitude in a non-championship race. At the end of the season, Porsche retired from F1 due to the high costs. Privateers continued to enter out-dated Porsche 718 in F1 until 1964.Porsche returned in 1983 after nearly two decades away, supplying engines badged as TAG units for the McLaren Team. Porsche-powered cars took two constructor championships in 1984 and 1985 and three driver crowns in 1984 , 1985 and 1986 . Porsche returned to F1 again in 1991 as an engine supplier, however this time with disastrous results: Porsche-powered Footwork cars failed to score a single point, and failed to even qualify for over half the races that year; Porsche has not participated in Formula One since.