Born in Montfermeil near Paris, Pescarolo began racing in 1965 with a Lotus Seven. He joined the Matra Formula 3 team in 1966 — though the car was not ready until mid-season — and in 1967 won the European Formula 3 Championship with Matra, earning promotion to Formula 2 for 1968. That season he was team-mate to Jean-Pierre Beltoise, collected several second places and a win at Albi, and earned a seat in Matra's Formula One team for the final three races of 1968.
His career suffered a serious setback in April 1969 at the Le Mans test session when his Matra sports car became airborne on the Mulsanne Straight. Pescarolo was badly burned and missed much of the 1969 season, returning in August for the German Grand Prix where he drove a Formula 2 Matra to fifth place overall.
For 1970, Matra signed Pescarolo full-time alongside Beltoise. His best Formula One result came that year — third place at the Monaco Grand Prix. He also won the Paris 1000 km and the Buenos Aires 1000 km in sports cars, partnered again with Beltoise. After Matra released him, Pescarolo drove for Frank Williams's Formula One team from 1971 to 1973 under Motul sponsorship, and for BRM in 1974, both without meaningful results. His final Formula One campaign came in 1976 with a privateer Surtees entered by BS Fabrications, where his best finish was ninth at the Austrian Grand Prix. In total Pescarolo participated in 64 Formula One Grands Prix, achieving one fastest lap, one podium, and 12 championship points.
Pescarolo's enduring legacy is built at Le Mans, where his 33 starts are the most ever recorded by a single driver. He won the race four times:
1972, alongside Graham Hill, in a Matra-Simca MS660
1973, alongside Gérard Larrousse, in a Matra-Simca MS670
1974, alongside Larrousse, in a Matra-Simca MS670B
1984, in a Porsche 956
The back-to-back victories in 1973 and 1974 alongside Larrousse were the centrepiece of Matra-Simca's dominant endurance programme. The 1984 win came a full decade after his third victory, demonstrating exceptional longevity at the highest level of endurance competition.
Beyond Le Mans, Pescarolo accumulated victories at a wide range of long-distance events. He won the 24 Hours of Daytona in 1991 alongside Joost Racing. Additional victories included the 1000 km Buenos Aires (1970), multiple wins at Dijon, Zeltweg, Watkins Glen, Vallelunga, and Spa; the 1000 km Monza (1982); the Suzuka 10 Hours (1981); and the 6 Hours of Nürburgring (1986). He drove at the Bathurst 1000 touring car race in Australia in 1977, 1978, and 1979, sharing a Ford XC Falcon with 1974 winner John Goss on all three occasions, though all three ended in retirement. He also competed in the Dakar Rally in the 1990s.
Following his retirement from driving in 1999, Pescarolo founded Pescarolo Sport, a Le Mans endurance team. The team raced Courage C60 prototypes and was so extensively modified that Courage permitted the team to rename the car after themselves. In 2005, Pescarolo Sport came closest to giving the team owner a Le Mans victory, finishing as a close runner-up with their C60H hybrid variant. The team won the Le Mans Endurance Series championship that year and finished second at Le Mans in 2006 and third in 2007. Pescarolo Sport competed at Le Mans until 2013 and notably carried PlayStation 2 and Gran Turismo 4 sponsorship during part of its existence.
Pescarolo's record of 33 Le Mans starts remains unmatched and is unlikely to be approached. His four victories across different decades and with different partners place him among the greatest endurance drivers the race has produced. His green helmet and bearded appearance made him one of motorsport's most recognisable figures throughout the 1970s and 1980s, and his persistence as both driver and team owner into the twenty-first century underscores a commitment to Le Mans that defined his entire career.