Enders began racing in 1992 at the age of eight, competing in Junior Dragster events sanctioned by the NHRA. In 1993 she won the Division 4 Jr. Dragster championship in the eight-to-nine-year-old class, and in 1995 was named Junior Dragster Driver of the Year. Over eight years of junior competition she accumulated 37 career wins. Her original Junior Dragster is on display at the Wally Parks NHRA Motorsports Museum.
At 16, in 2000, Enders advanced to her first NHRA national event final in Houston, becoming the youngest national event finalist in NHRA history. She was named NHRA Sportsman Rookie of the Year for the season.
In 2003, the story of Enders and her sister Courtney was adapted as Right on Track, a Disney Channel Original Movie. Erica was portrayed by Beverley Mitchell and Courtney by Brie Larson.
In 2004, Enders became the 35th woman in NHRA history to earn a national event victory, winning in the Super Gas class at Houston. In 2005, she became the first woman to compete in NHRA Pro Stock since 1993, the first woman to qualify in the top half of a Pro Stock field, and the first woman to reach a Pro Stock final round. In 2006, she became the first woman to qualify number one in Pro Stock, at Heartland Park in Topeka, Kansas.
After returning to Cagnazzi Racing in 2011, Enders broke the Pro Stock national speed record at 213.57 mph (343.71 km/h) at Gainesville and defeated 2004 NASCAR Sprint Cup champion Kurt Busch in the first round at that event.
On July 2, 2012, competing at Route 66 Raceway in Joliet, Illinois, Enders became the first woman to win an NHRA Pro Stock race, defeating four-time champion Greg Anderson in the final with a time of 6.627 seconds. She finished fourth in points in the 2012 Countdown to the Championship, her best points result to that date.
Enders joined Elite Motorsports for the 2014 season, driving a new Chevrolet Camaro. That season she set both sides of the NHRA Pro Stock national record — 6.464 seconds and 215.55 mph (346.89 km/h) — at Englishtown, New Jersey. She won six races and claimed the season-ending Auto Club NHRA Finals to secure the championship, becoming the first woman to win the NHRA Pro Stock World Championship.
In 2015 she won her second consecutive Pro Stock title, winning eight events during the season. Two records for female NHRA drivers fell that year: in September at Charlotte's zMax Dragway, her 19th career win surpassed Shirley Muldowney's record for most NHRA national event wins by a female driver; in October at the Texas Motorplex, eight wins in a season eclipsed the previous female single-season record of seven, set by Pro Stock Motorcycle rider Angelle Sampey in 2001.
Enders went on to win additional Pro Stock world championships, bringing her total to six. She also expanded her program, entering Pro Modified competition for Elite Motorsports beginning in 2018, driving a twin-turbocharged 2019 Chevrolet Camaro in which she set the Pro Modified class record for fastest speed at 261 mph. In 2019, she narrowly avoided serious injury when her Pro Mod Camaro caught fire at the end of a qualifying run in Ohio.
Enders attended Cypress Springs High School in Houston alongside her younger sister Courtney. After winning her first Pro Stock national event, longtime boyfriend Richie Stevens, Jr. — himself a drag racer — proposed, and the two married on December 7, 2012.
Enders' career represents the most sustained success any female driver has achieved in NHRA professional competition. Six Pro Stock world championships, multiple records for female competitors, and a string of firsts across more than two decades place her among the defining figures in the class regardless of gender. Her 2014 championship win was the breakthrough point, but the consistency with which she has continued to compete for and win titles has made her impact on the sport structural rather than merely symbolic.