Barker began his motorsport career in karts in 2004. He transitioned to single-seaters in 2009, competing in the British Formula Ford Championship with Fluid Motorsport Development, where he achieved one win at Knockhill.
In 2010, Barker moved to Australia to compete in the Australian Formula 3 Championship. He won the title by one point over Mitch Evans, securing six race wins throughout the season. He then moved into Porsche motorsport, joining Team BRM in the Australian Porsche Carrera Cup in 2011, finishing fifth in the standings.
Barker returned to Britain in 2012, competing in the Porsche Carrera Cup GB. Despite a slow start, he won five races in a row in the latter half of the season, finishing second in the championship. In 2013, he progressed to the Porsche Supercup with Team Bleekemolen, achieving a best result of fourth and finishing third in the rookie classification. He received a silver ranking from the FIA at the end of the year.
Remaining in the Porsche Supercup for 2014, Barker scored a podium finish for Lechner Racing Team. He also won the support race at the 2014 24 Hours of Le Mans by five seconds over Tom Dillmann. He paired with Michael Wainwright at Gulf Racing in the LMGTE class of the European Le Mans Series, driving a Porsche 911 RSR, and made six appearances in the United SportsCar Championship for GB Autosport. Barker was upgraded to gold by the FIA at the start of 2015. He switched to MOMO-Megatron Team PARTRAX in the Porsche Supercup, achieving a podium at Monaco and finishing ninth in the standings. He also competed in the Porsche Carrera Cup Germany, securing two podiums.
In 2016, Barker partnered with Michael Wainwright and Adam Carroll at Gulf Racing in the FIA World Endurance Championship, driving in the LMGTE Am category. They scored four fourth-place finishes and finished fifth at the 24 Hours of Le Mans, ending up sixth in the teams' championship. He also secured a pole position at Estoril in a round of the ELMS with Proton Competition. The 2017 season saw improved results with Gulf Racing, achieving third place at Mexico and second in Shanghai, though the team finished fifth overall.
The 2018–19 WEC "super-season" brought consistency, with the team finishing every race and securing sixth in the standings. Barker set a new lap record for the LMGTE Am category at the 2018 24 Hours of Le Mans. He also won the Bathurst 12 Hour race in the GT3 Cup class, having previously won in 2014 in the same category. In the 2019–20 WEC campaign, Barker, Wainwright, and Andrew Watson scored a podium in Bahrain, finishing third, and ended up seventh in the standings. He attained overall victory at the Dubai 24 Hours at the start of 2020 and secured another Bathurst victory, this time in the GT3 Pro-Am class.
The 2021 season proved disappointing for Barker and Gulf Racing, finishing twelfth and last of all full-time LMGTE Am entries. In 2022, after leading Dinamic Motorsport in the Asian Le Mans Series, Barker returned to GR Racing with Wainwright and Riccardo Pera, achieving a record fourth-place finish at the 24 Hours of Le Mans and rising to eighth in the teams' standings, setting fastest laps in class at Spa and Monza. The 2023 WEC season proved to be the team’s most successful, finishing third at both the Centenary Le Mans 24 Hours and in Monza, helping GR Racing to sixth in the championship.
Barker has demonstrated success beyond the FIA World Endurance Championship, winning the Bathurst 12 Hour race four times in the GT3 Cup and GT3 Pro-Am classes. He also secured overall victory at the Dubai 24 Hours in 2020.
At the end of 2023, Barker was announced as a Ford factory driver in the WEC, joining Multimatic Motorsports and Proton Competition to drive a Ford Mustang GT3 alongside Zacharie Robichon and Ryan Hardwick in 2024. Barker concluded his tenure with GR Racing by stating that Wainwright and the team had “put [him] on a pedestal” by giving him the chance to race in the WEC for seven seasons.
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