Linder grew up in Pittsburgh and built his reputation on the tight, demanding circuit tracks of Pennsylvania before stepping into national-level competition. The regional oval scene of western Pennsylvania produced a hardened crop of racers who moved between dirt and paved tracks depending on the season, and Linder was among the most successful of that generation in his home state.
Between 1949 and 1956 Linder entered 28 NASCAR events, winning three races and collecting eight additional top-ten finishes. All three of his victories came during a remarkable stretch in August and October of 1950, each time behind the wheel of his Oldsmobile. He won at Dayton, Ohio on August 20, 1950, at Hamburg, New York on August 27, 1950, and at Vernon, New York on October 1, 1950 — three wins in the space of six weeks that represented the peak of his NASCAR campaign.
Linder also raced at Daytona Beach on multiple occasions, including an 18th-place finish in the 1951 Beach Course event. His final NASCAR start came at the 1956 Beach Course race at Daytona, after which he stepped back from NASCAR competition and focused on open-wheel racing.
Alongside his stock car activities, Linder competed in USAC events on open-wheel machinery. The dual-discipline approach was common among American club racers of the era, and Linder's mechanical aptitude and track craft translated well across different car types. His accumulated total of more than 110 victories at Pennsylvania venues reflects the density and frequency of his regional program throughout the 1940s and 1950s.
On April 19, 1959, Linder was competing in a USAC Champ Car event at Trenton Speedway in New Jersey when Don Branson spun directly in front of him. Attempting to avoid a collision, Linder's car crashed through the guardrail and rolled once before coming to rest on its wheels. Linder, 36 years old, died from a broken neck sustained in the accident.
The car Linder drove at Trenton — the Vargo Special — went on to be involved in further fatal accidents, taking the lives of Van Johnson a few months later and Hugh Randall some years after that, leaving the car with a grim reputation in the USAC paddock.
Dick Linder and his brother Gus Linder are members of The Pittsburgh Circle Track Club Hall of Fame, recognizing their combined contributions to motorsport in western Pennsylvania. Dick's three NASCAR wins in a single season remain a testament to the speed he showed at the national level, even though the bulk of his competitive life was lived on the Pennsylvania short-track circuit rather than on the sport's biggest stages.