In addition to racing, Collins' company Collins Autosport Limited provides precision and stunt driving services, particularly for BBC Television, including Top Gear[4][5] and Top Gear Live, as well as for the film industry, such as driving James Bond's car in Quantum of Solace and Casino Royale, and Eve Moneypenny's car in Skyfall.

[10] Collins was born in Bristol, but spent the first ten years of his life in California in the US, where his father worked for a distribution company.

[19] In 2001, Collins raced in the FIA Sportscar Championship for Team Ascari, with Werner Lupberger, the pair winning at Donington Park and finishing joint sixth in the standings.

In 2007, Collins tested a NASCAR Cup Series car at Lakeland Speedway with the Red Bull Racing Team.

In 2009, Collins was named as an endurance driver for Australian V8 Supercars team, Kelly Racing/Jack Daniel's Racing, partnering with Nathan Pretty.

Collins competed in the final meeting of the 2010 Dunlop MSA British Touring Car Championship, driving a BMW for the Motorbase Performance team.

In 2021, Collins once again found himself behind a racing wheel as he took part in the Britcar Praga Championship alongside ex-SAS and Who Dares Wins star Jay Morton and Angus Fender.

Collins is a regular writer for Autosport magazine testing the latest racing cars, has written for The Sunday Times, fronted Sky Sports' televised NASCAR coverage, along with appearances on the British car-focused television programmes Top Gear (BBC Two), Pulling Power (ITV1) and driven (Channel 4).

[13] He worked as a precision-driver in the film National Treasure: Book of Secrets where he doubled for the actor Nicolas Cage and drove in some of the high-speed sequences in London.

[22][23] As a precision-driver in the 2008-film Quantum of Solace, Collins drove James Bond's Aston Martin DBS as a stunt double for Daniel Craig in the lead role.

[24] Collins has appeared on the BBC television programme Top Gear as himself,[25] with his company providing drivers and driving services since December 2003.

[26] The stunt involved Carter and an aerial cameraman jumping out of a Cessna light aircraft then landing in the open-topped Mercedes car being driven at a speed by Collins.

[27] The open-top car was introduced as belonging to Collins and had earlier been used, driven by The Stig, during a wig test in Series 3 Episode 5.

In 2004, the driver featured in the second episode of series five, driving a Lancer Evo VII and then a Bowler Wildcat vehicle in a race against mountain boarding world champion Tom Kirkman[27][28][29] At the start of series six, Collins appeared with other British Touring Car Championship racing and stunt drivers for a Five-a-side football game using a fleet of Toyota Aygo cars.

[33] Collins had initially portrayed himself as a BBC marketing executive[33] and only confirmed a more detailed connection to the Top Gear show after the signing of confidentiality agreements by the business owners.

The injunction was quashed by the High Court, allowing the possibility of the book being published on its intended release date of 16 September 2010 in the United Kingdom and 1 October 2010 in Australia.

[37] On 7/8 September 2010, The Guardian and other papers re-reported Clarkson's assertions in the interview that Collins had been fired from his role on the television show.

[31] Though Hammond still referred to Collins as a "romantic novelist", he said that "to be honest, [he was] quite glad to see 'the old Splitter' back, and [he does] know how much giving these guys a hand means to him.

In his appearance in the Top Gear Special, '50 Years of Bond Cars', Collins was wearing a T-shirt on which was printed the words, "I AM THE STIG."

This followed by multiple films for the James Bond franchise[42] and other blockbusters including The Dark Knight Rises, Solo: A Star Wars Story, Jack Ryan, and Mission Impossible.