Casale grew up in a motorsport family. His father, Francisco Casale, competed in the Jeep Fun Race in Chile through the 1980s and 1990s, and Ignacio was drawn into off-road racing through both his father and his uncle. He began in motocross competitions and served as his father's co-driver at the Dakar Rally before competing independently.
Casale's first Dakar appearance came in 2010, when he co-drove for his father in the Trucks category, finishing 26th. That result earned Ignacio a wild card entry to the 2011 edition, where he competed in the motorcycle category and finished 40th — his only Dakar motorcycle campaign. In 2012 he switched to the four-wheeler (quad) category and finished fourth overall, becoming the highest-placed Chilean rider that year.
The 2013 Dakar was a breakthrough: Casale won the seventh stage, becoming the first Chilean to win a stage in the quad category. He finished second overall behind Marcos Patronelli — the best result achieved by any Chilean at the Dakar to that point.
After fourteen days and approximately 5,000 miles of racing across the Argentine and Chilean Andes, the Bolivian salt flats, and the Atacama Desert, Casale won the 2014 Dakar Rally in the quad category. He finished first in seven of the thirteen stages — stages 1, 6, 7, 8, 11, 12, and 13 — and led the overall classification from stage 7 through to the finish. Following the victory he was received by Chilean president Sebastián Piñera at La Moneda Palace in Santiago.
The 2015 Dakar ended in retirement at stage 10 due to mechanical failure, despite Casale winning three stages and leading after stages 1, 2, and 8. He retired again in stage 6 of the 2016 edition following an accident. The 2017 rally brought a return to the podium with a runner-up finish and two stage wins. Casale then claimed his second quad Dakar title at the 2018 edition.
Having raced the 2018 Atacama Rally in Chile as his first UTV event, Casale moved to the UTV class for the 2019 Dakar, competing with co-driver Americo Aliaga. He won the 2020 Dakar Rally in the UTV category, adding a third Dakar title across two different vehicle classes. The win included four stage victories.
After his third title Casale pursued further challenges in new categories. In 2021 he competed in the Trucks category for Buggyra Racing with a Tatra Phoenix, finishing ninth despite mechanical problems. He retired from the 2022 Dakar in stage 4 after an oil hose failure caused a fire in his Tatra, but the team repaired the car to classify 27th and claim a stage win. In 2023 he debuted in the T3 category, finishing tenth.
In late 2023 Yamaha invited Casale to test a UTV prototype, leading to a development collaboration. He brought the Yamaha prototype to fourth place at the 2023 Rally of Morocco.
After a break from Dakar competition in 2025, Casale returned for the 2026 edition driving a Taurus T3MAX for BBR Motorsport in the Challenger class, with Brazilian co-driver Carlos "Cadú" Sachs, making their first start together. He won stage 6 of the 2026 Dakar, his first stage victory at the event since his UTV years. He described his return as motivated by passion rather than pressure for results, noting that two years away had reinforced how central the Dakar is to his sporting life.
Casale stands as the only driver to have won the Dakar Rally in both the quad and UTV categories. His 2014 victory was the first Dakar title won by a Chilean competitor in any category. His willingness to move between categories — motorcycles, quads, UTVs, trucks, and T3 prototypes — across fifteen consecutive Dakar starts from 2010 to 2024 is rare even among the event's most experienced competitors.
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