The field comprised 50 teams of four drivers each, divided into two classes: Le Mans Prototype (LMP, 30 entries, all fielding Oreca 07 cars) and Grand Touring Endurance (GTE, 20 entries, choosing between the Aston Martin Vantage, Chevrolet Corvette C7.R, Ferrari 488 GTE, and Porsche 911 RSR). Each team was required to include at least two professional drivers holding an FIA or equivalent international licence. Individual driver stints were limited to a minimum of four hours and a maximum of seven, with no driver permitted to drive more than three hours within any five-hour window. Pit stops for fuel, tyres, and driver changes were mandatory. GTE cars were subject to a balance of performance applied by the game's developers. FIA WEC race director Eduardo Freitas officiated the event. Teams disconnecting from the server faced penalties of five or six minutes depending on circumstances.
The 200-driver field drew from multiple professional racing disciplines. Formula One drivers including Max Verstappen and Lando Norris competed, alongside Formula E drivers such as Jean-Éric Vergne and António Félix da Costa, IndyCar competitors including Tony Kanaan and Simon Pagenaud, IMSA regulars including Nick Tandy and Juan Pablo Montoya, FIA Formula 2 drivers such as Jack Aitken and Louis Delétraz, and European Le Mans Series competitors. Michelin was the designated control tyre supplier.
Two separate 20-minute qualifying sessions were held on the evening of 12 June. Sim driver Jernej Simončič set a time of 3 minutes 23.380 seconds to put the No. 4 ByKolles – Burst Esports Oreca on LMP pole position. In GTE, Joshua Rogers — the reigning Porsche Esports Supercup champion — set the fastest class lap of 3 minutes 46.550 seconds to claim pole for the No. 93 Porsche Esports Team.
The race ran from 15:00 Central European Time on 13 June. Tom Dillmann led the opening six laps before receiving a drive-through penalty for a jump start, dropping ByKolles to seventeenth. Kelvin van der Linde took the lead for E-Team WRT but subsequently lost his internet connection, falling the team back to twenty-sixth. The race lead then circulated between the Veloce Esports 2, 2 Seas Motorsport, Team Redline, and Rebellion Williams Esports entries over the opening hours. Fernando Alonso's No. 14 entry was eliminated from contention early after a collision with Simona de Silvestro's Porsche and a subsequent software problem that prevented his crew from adding fuel during a pit stop; the car stopped on circuit with no fuel before the end of the second hour. A technical fault in the computer systems caused a red flag stoppage towards the end of the fifth hour, with all cars halted and then restarted, ensuring all fifty entries remained in the race.
As virtual night fell, Verstappen took over the No. 20 Team Redline entry and moved into the overall lead in the ninth hour. Server glitching problems in the tenth hour reduced Verstappen's frame rate, causing him to hit barriers at Arnage and then again in the Porsche Curves; the resulting repairs dropped Team Redline out of contention and the car eventually became the first official retirement, just before half distance. Raffaele Marciello moved the No. 1 Rebellion Williams Esports car into the lead, which the entry held — rotating among co-drivers Jakub Brzezinski, Louis Delétraz, and Nikodem Wisniewski — through the closing stages.
A second red flag stoppage for half an hour was called at nineteen hours to address further server problems, which compressed gaps across the field. In GTE, the No. 93 Porsche Esports Team car of Ayhancan Güven, Tommy Østgaard, Joshua Rogers, and Nick Tandy had led for 261 consecutive laps by the finish.
In the final hour, Rebellion opted to conserve fuel by switching engines off and relying on slipstream. ByKolles' No. 4 car, driven by Simončič, applied pressure to the leading Rebellion entry but could not find a way past. Wisniewski crossed the line first for the No. 1 Rebellion team, completing 371 laps in a total time of 24 hours 30.007 seconds. ByKolles finished 17.781 seconds behind in second, while the No. 13 Rebellion car of Jack Aitken, Agustín Canapino, Marc Gassner, and Michael Romanidis was third, a further 5.203 seconds adrift. The 2 Seas Motorsport team finished fourth and Veloce Esports 2 — which included Pierre Gasly and Jean-Éric Vergne — fifth.
In GTE, Porsche's No. 93 crew won, with Aston Martin Racing's No. 95 car of Manuel Biancolilla, Lasse Sørensen, Nicki Thiim, and Richard Westbrook finishing one lap behind in second. R8G Esports took third in class. Nick Tandy became the first driver to win both the real and virtual 24 Hours of Le Mans.
Delétraz credited Wisniewski's fuel conservation as decisive: "We finished with 0.5 litres of fuel on the line, so we couldn't even do the in-lap." He described the event as "one of the longest nights of my life" and said the experience would help him prepare for the actual Le Mans race later in 2020. Autosport's Josh Suttill called it "its own thrilling standalone historic motorsport event." The 2020 24 Hours of Le Mans Virtual subsequently won the Live Experience Award at the Leaders Sports Awards, the Autosport Pioneering and Engineering Award, the VCO Simmy Award for Best Event, and the Best Use of Esports by a Sports Brand Award at the Sports Technology Awards.