Facetti came from a motor racing family: his father Piero was a mechanic and racer who finished fourth in the 1947 Mille Miglia, and both of Carlo's brothers, Giuliano and Rosadelle, also raced. He began driving at the age of 11, learning from Alberto Ascari, a family friend. He started competitive racing in 1953, paired with Elio Zagato at the Giro di Calabria in a Fiat 8V 1100. By 1960 he was building and racing Formula Junior cars using Lancia Appia engines.
In 1963, Facetti joined Lancia's works team, HF Squadra Corse, for the inaugural European Touring Car Challenge, racing a Lancia Flaminia at venues including the Nürburgring and Brands Hatch. He and co-driver Luigi Cabella claimed his first major international victory at Népliget Park in Budapest. In early 1964 he returned to Formula Junior racing in South America with Scuderia Sant'Ambroeus, finishing fifth in the Gran Premio Internacional Ciudad de Buenos Aires in a Lotus-Ford 22.
From 1969, Facetti was employed by Autodelta, Alfa Romeo's competition department, developing sportscars and contesting the European Touring Car Championship alongside drivers including Ignazio Giunti and Nino Vaccarella. During this period he finished third in the Spa 24 Hours twice. In 1973 he raced the Alfa Romeo T33/TT in the World Championship for Makes; the following year, partnered by Andrea de Adamich, he visited the podium four times, the best result a second place in the 1000 km Österreichring. Autodelta finished fourth overall in 1974, but Facetti parted ways with the team after winning the Italian title that season.
In 1974, Facetti attempted to qualify for the Italian Grand Prix at Monza in a Scuderia Finotto-prepared Brabham-Cosworth BT42, taking the entry in place of Helmut Koinigg. Neither driver succeeded in qualifying the car.
Between 1975 and 1976 Facetti worked with Lancia on the Stratos, both as a development engineer and as a driver in Grand Touring racing. He worked alongside Mike Parkes to develop a 24-valve version of the Dino V6 with fuel injection. He led the Giro d'Italia Automobilistico before retiring with gearbox failure. His final commitment for Lancia produced a win in the Giro d'Italia in the Group 5 Silhouette version. The programme concluded following the death of Parkes in August 1977.
For 1977, Facetti formed a new partnership with Martino Finotto, racing a BMW 3.0 CSL under the Jolly Club banner, supplemented by outings in a Porsche 935 in World Championship Group 5 races. The season opened at the 1977 24 Hours of Daytona where the pair finished second in the Porsche 935. In the ETCC, Facetti took the championship lead with wins at Enna and Czechoslovakia, but a string of non-finishes ultimately left him six points behind champion Dieter Quester, despite winning the final round at Estoril.
In 1978 Finotto acquired an Alpina BMW CSL. Facetti and Finotto won at Monza and at the Austria-Trophäe at the Salzburgring, where Facetti's pole lap was more than a second faster than the previous record set in the same car. Reliability problems in Estoril and on the Österreichring eventually cost them the championship lead.
The 1979 ETCC campaign proved decisive. After early setbacks the pair won at the Nürburgring, Zandvoort, and Salzburgring in three consecutive rounds. At Silverstone they won the RAC Tourist Trophy, which also brought Facetti the European Touring Car Championship. The pair added another victory at Zolder to close the season with five wins from the final six rounds.
By 1980 Facetti and Finotto were operating Achille Motors in Milan. Lancia sold them a Lancia Beta Montecarlo Turbo for 1980 World Championship Group 5 competition. For 1981, unwilling to compete against Porsche 935s with standard machinery, Facetti developed a radical interpretation of the Ferrari 308 GTB for Group 5 competition, naming it the Carma FF (combining the drivers' surnames). He designed bespoke cylinder heads and fitted twin turbochargers, reaching a claimed 700 bhp, with lightweight subframes designed and built by Giorgio Stirano of Alba Engineering. In qualifying at Daytona the car was placed sixth, achieving an estimated 840 bhp. The Carma FF set the fastest lap of the race before retiring after five laps with a cracked manifold and electrical failure. It subsequently appeared on pole at Monza and at Enna, but reliability proved the programme's undoing throughout the season.
From 1983, Facetti and Finotto shifted to Group C Junior competition, with Finotto commissioning a new car — the Alba AR2 — and Facetti designing a 1.8-litre four-cylinder turbocharged engine. The team raced under the Giannini-Alba name, later Carma FF. The Alba AR2 was a regular class winner in 1983, helping Alba win the Group C Junior Cup, and the AR6 successor continued the effort into 1985. The team's final international appearance came at the 1988 Kyalami 500 km, before Facetti retired from international competition.
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