The World Rally Championship (WRC) is a rallying series organised by the FIA, culminating with a champion driver and manufacturer. The driver's world championship and manufacturer's world championship are separate championships, but based on the same point system. The series currently consists of 13 three-day events driven on surfaces ranging from gravel and tarmac to snow and ice. Each rally is split into 15-25 special stages which are run against the clock on closed roads. The sport's commercial rights are administered by International Sportsworld Communicators, who also produce the daily event highlights shown in 186 countries.

The WRC was formed from well-known and popular international rallies, most of which had previously been part of the European Rally Championship and/or the International Championship for Manufacturers, and the series was first contested in 1973. The World Rally Car is the current car specification in the series. It evolved from Group A cars which replaced the banned Group B supercars for example the Audi Quattro. World Rally Cars are built on production two-litre four-cylinder cars, but feature turbochargers, anti-lag systems, four-wheel-drive, sequential gearboxes (paddle shift), aerodynamic parts and other enhancements bringing the price of a WRC car to around US$1 million (€700,000 / £500,000) .

The WRC features three support championships, the Junior World Rally Championship (JWRC), the Production World Rally Championship (PWRC), and the Super 2000 World Rally Championship (SWRC) which are contested on the same events and stages as the WRC, but with different regulations. The production car, super 2000 and junior entrants race through the stages after the WRC drivers.

Each season normally consists of 13 rallies driven on surfaces ranging from gravel and tarmac to snow and ice. Points from these events are calculated towards the drivers' and manufacturers' world championships. The driver's championship and manufacturer's championship are separate championships, but based on the same point system. This means, for example, that Petter Solberg driving for Subaru can win the driver's championship but Citroën can win the manufacturer's championship, which is what happened in 2003, and again in 2006 and 2007 when Sébastien Loeb took his third and fourth WRC titles but Ford won the manufacturer's championship. In the current points system, points are awarded at the end of each rally to the top ten WRC (overall), junior, production car and super 2000 drivers that qualify as follows: 1st: 25 points, 2nd: 18 points, 3rd: 15 points, 4th: 12 points, 5th: 10 points, 6th: 8 points, 7th: 6 points, 8th: 4 points, 9th: 2 points , 10th: 1 point. Despite how many drivers are in one team, constructors can only nominate two drivers to score points for the team as well as scoring for themselves. As only nominated drivers are counted while awarding points, even competitors placed further down than tenth overall (if preceded by privateer drivers) can score them.

In the current era, each rally usually consists of 15-35 special stages of distances ranging from under 2 km (1.24 mi) (super specials) to over 50 kilometers (31 mi). These competitive stages driven on closed roads are linked by non-competitive road sections which are on open roads on which all road laws of that country must be adhered to. On average a day consists of a total of 400 kilometers (249 mi) of driving.[5] A WRC event begins with reconnaissance (recce) on Tuesday and Wednesday, allowing crews to drive through the stages and create or update their pacenotes. On Thursday, teams can run through the shakedown stage to practice and test their set-ups. The competition begins on Friday and ends on Sunday. Cars start the stages at one or two minute intervals. Each day, or leg, has a few designated service parks between the stages, where the teams can – within strict time limits – perform maintenance and repairs on their cars. The service park also allows spectators and the media to get close to the teams and their cars and drivers. Between the days, after a 45-minute end of day service, cars are locked away in the guarded parc fermé.