Ashley Force grew up immersed in motorsport through her father's dominant career. She attended Esperanza High School in Anaheim, California, and graduated in 2003 from California State University, Fullerton with a bachelor's degree in communications with an emphasis in television and video. Her two younger sisters, Courtney and Brittany, also pursued professional drag racing careers with John Force Racing.
Force made her competitive debut in Top Alcohol Dragster in 2004 as a rookie. She won three of the final five races of the season, including the prestigious 50th annual U.S. Nationals at Indianapolis Motor Speedway and the season-ending Automobile Club of Southern California event at Pomona. At Pomona, she and her father both won their respective events on the same day — the first father-daughter winners in NHRA history. She finished the season fourth in the national points standings.
In 2007, Force stepped up to the Professional ranks, piloting a Castrol-sponsored Mustang Top Fuel Funny Car for John Force Racing. At Atlanta in April, she and her father became the first father and daughter to race each other in an NHRA event — a round she won with an elapsed time of 4.779 seconds at 317.05 mph. She advanced to the semifinal, matching the best-ever Funny Car event finish for a female driver at that time. In October at Las Vegas Motor Speedway, she became the first woman to compete in a national series Funny Car final round, though she was defeated by Tony Pedregon on a holeshot. The NHRA named her Rookie of the Year in the Funny Car division for 2007.
The 2008 season marked a turning point in Force's career. She reached three consecutive final rounds at Houston, Las Vegas, and Atlanta. In Las Vegas she was defeated by Tim Wilkerson but became the first female racer ever to lead the NHRA Funny Car championship standings. On April 27, 2008, at the NHRA Summit Southern Nationals at Atlanta Dragway in Commerce, Georgia, her opponent in the final round was her father John, who was pursuing the 1,000th round win of his career. Ashley Force claimed her first NHRA Professional win that day — and the first by a woman in the Top Fuel/Funny Car category — posting a 4.837-second elapsed time, the second quickest Funny Car run of the weekend.
Force continued her strong form in 2009, winning her second career event on March 29 at the O'Reilly NHRA Spring Nationals, defeating former instructor Jack Beckman in the final. She accumulated five career number-one qualifying positions and secured victory at the U.S. Nationals in Indianapolis — becoming the first female Funny Car driver to win at that event, and the first female driver to win in two different NHRA professional classes. She finished the 2009 season second in the Funny Car points standings, the highest points finish ever achieved by a woman in that category.
Force Hood announced in January 2011 that she would take a hiatus from racing during the season while expecting her first child with husband Daniel Hood, whom she had married in December 2008. She was simultaneously named President of John Force Entertainment, a media production subsidiary of John Force Racing. She returned briefly in a testing capacity in 2014, renewing her Funny Car license at Las Vegas Motor Speedway by driving her sister Courtney's car, though she did not return to full competition.
Ashley Force Hood's 2008 victory at Atlanta was a landmark moment in drag racing, establishing that a woman could win at the top level of the most tradition-bound categories in NHRA competition. Her 2009 accomplishments — two championship event wins, a second-place points finish, and victories at Indy — reinforced that the result was not an anomaly. Racing alongside two sisters who also became professional competitors, the Force family became the defining dynasty in American drag racing of the 2000s.