Oreille worked as a mason to fund his early motorsport ambitions. His first competitive outing came at a 24-hour race at the Circuit Paul Ricard in 1974, driving his own Simca Rallye 2. He built his career in French club events before investing his winnings in a rally-prepped Opel Kadett GT/E at the end of 1980. Competing with that car, he won the French Trophée Opel in 1983 in its final running year. He then joined the Budget Marseille racing team, which gave him access to a Renault R5 Alpine Turbo and subsequently an R11 Turbo. His wife Sylvie served as his co-driver until 1987.
Oreille made his first WRC start at the 1984 Tour de Corse and went on to make 28 starts in total, all in Renaults. From the mid-1980s he drove as an official Renault works driver. At the 1985 Rallye Monte Carlo he won the Group N class outright in an R11 Turbo, and the following year he returned to win the Group A class in the same event in the same car, finishing eighth overall. In 1988, now in the unrestricted Group A era, he finished fourth overall at Monte Carlo in a Group N car — still fourth across all classes.
Over his WRC career Oreille started 28 events, achieved 2 podium finishes, and scored 68 championship points. His co-drivers across that span included Jean-Marc Andrié, Gilles Thimonier, Michel Roissard, and Jack Boyère.
The pinnacle of Oreille's career came at the 1989 Rallye Côte d'Ivoire, which was a round of the World Rally Championship. Driving a Group N Renault 5 GT Turbo for the Diac-Simon Racing Team with Gilles Thimonier as co-driver, he won the event outright in a total time of 8 hours, 32 minutes and 54 seconds. Only seven of sixty starters reached the finish. No Group N car has ever won a WRC round before or since, making it one of the most singular results in rally history.
That same season Oreille won the FIA Cup for Drivers of Production Cars — effectively the Group N world championship — for the first time, and he retained it in 1990 with Michel Roissard navigating, again in a Renault 5 GT Turbo for the Diac-Simon team.
After stepping back from the WRC, Oreille continued to compete in historic rallying events alongside his wife Sylvie, who returned to the co-driver's seat. In 2019 he won the Maroc Historic Rally in a Porsche 911 SC. He then won the Tour de Corse Historique in 2020, driving a Porsche 911 RS, and again in 2022 in a Porsche 911 Carrera RS, on the latter occasion setting the fastest time on the final stage. In 2024, at the age of 71, he finished third at the same event.