Cresto was born in New York on 19 January 1956 and lived in Ospedaletti, near Sanremo in northern Italy. He began racing in an Opel Kadett GT/E alongside Amedeo Gerbino. In 1979, he served as co-driver to Tonino Tognana in a Kadett GT/E, later graduating with Tognana to the more powerful Fiat 131 Abarth in 1981. That year, the Cresto-Tognana pairing finished eighth in the Italian Championship.
In 1982, Cresto moved to Gianfranco Cunico's car, a Fiat Ritmo 130, posting strong results. The following year saw him working with multiple drivers at Italian national level: alongside Michele Cinotto he placed sixth overall, with third-place finishes at the Targa Florio and Quattro Regioni, both in a Lancia 037. With Andrea Zanussi he finished tenth, having taken second at the San Marino Rally, also in a Lancia 037. Cresto and Zanussi also took third at the Halkidikis rally, a European Championship qualifier. In 1984, Cresto competed at Halkidikis again, this time with Carlo Capone in a Lancia 037. After a season that included a direct duel with Henri Toivonen and his Porsche, the Italian pairing won the European Championship.
Following an accident that injured Maurizio Perissinot, Cresto was brought in as co-driver for Lancia works driver Attilio Bettega for two World Championship qualifying rounds. Bettega died in a crash during the 1985 Tour de Corse on 2 May 1985 — exactly one year before Cresto himself would be killed in the same event. Cresto's co-driver in that accident, Perissinot, survived uninjured. Cresto returned in 1985 to race again with Zanussi for Lancia.
For the 1986 World Rally Championship season, Cresto was paired with Henri Toivonen in a Lancia Delta S4 under the Lancia Martini banner. The partnership proved immediately effective: the duo won the Rally Monte Carlo at the season's start and entered the Tour de Corse as championship favourites.
Racing on 2 May 1986, Toivonen and Cresto held a lead of one minute forty-two seconds when they crashed during the eighteenth stage of the rally. Their Lancia Delta S4 left the road, plunged down a ravine and landed on its roof. The aluminium fuel tank beneath the driver's seat was ruptured by trees and the car exploded. Both Toivonen and Cresto died in their seats. There were no witnesses close enough to observe the accident clearly. Services for Cresto were held in Villastellone, Italy, on 4 May 1986.
The deaths of Toivonen and Cresto, combined with a series of other Group B accidents that had already claimed driver and spectator lives during the 1986 season, forced the FIA to act decisively. Group B cars — enormously powerful, lightly regulated machines — were banned from international competition after the 1986 season, ending what many considered the most spectacular and dangerous era in rally history. Cresto's career, though cut short at thirty years old, had traced the path of a skilled and versatile co-driver working his way from Italian club events to the summit of the world rally scene.