Loeb’s climb to success was by no means meteoric, beginning when he got his driving licence at 18, when he bought a Renault Super 5 GT Turbo, with money from his grandmother, and rapidly lost interest in gymnastics, in which he had previously competed. He was soon racing his Renault in illegal street races, while studying to be an electrician. He was talented but somehow did not impress the judges in the Rallye Jeunes FFSA competition in 1995 and 1996, which he failed to win on both occasions. Rally raid competitor Dominique Heintz, who owned a garage in the region and read that Loeb had set the fastest times in the competition but had not been selected, decided that he would set up a team for Loeb, with a friend called Rémi Mammosser. The team was called Ambition Sport Auto and it bought a Peugeot 106 Rallye for Loeb to drive. They won their class first time out on a regional rally. The first season ended up with a lowly ninth place in the Volant Peugeot series but the team partners mortgaged their houses to get Loeb a Citroën Saxo Kit Car for the Trophée Citroën in 1998. Sebastian won three times but still finished only sixth in the championship. He won the series the following year and then moved through the French national gravel rally championship in 2000, winning the 2WD class. He had finally done enough to be hired by Citroën in 2001, to compete in the inaugural FIA Super 1600 Drivers Cup and the French Rally Championship. He won both and finished second when given the chance to drive a factory Citroën Xsara WRC on the San Remo Rally. That got him into the factory team in 2002 and his first victory followed in Germany that year. He was runner up in the World Championship in 2003 before finally winning his first title in 2004.
What is often forgotten about Loeb is that he is an all-rounder and raced for Pescarolo Sport at Le Mans, finishing second in 2006. He won the Race of Champions three times, in 2003, 2005 and 2008 and in December 2007 was given the chance to drive a Renault F1 car at Paul Ricard. He would do a second F1 test in 2008, this time with Red Bull Racing and there were serious discussions about a possible driver with Scuderia Toro Rosso in 2009, alongside Sebastian Buemi, although in the end it was concluded that he had not done sufficient circuit racing to warrant a superlicence.
In addition to his other exploits, he won the X Games in 2012 and won the Pikes Peak hillclimb in a Peugeot 208 T16 prototype. He then moved on to racing for Citroën in the new FIA World Touring Car Championship in 2014 and won two races and finished third in the standings. He later tried the World Rallycross Championship, racing for Team Peugeot-Hansen and most recently has been competing in the Dakar.