Athanassoulas graduated from the American College of Greece and got a BEng in Mechanical Engineering and an M.A.

[1] He started racing in 2001, after winning a competition by Greek magazine 4 Wheels and Toyota Hellas.

In 2005 he won the A5 class of the Greek Rally Championship driving a Ford Puma Kit Car.

For the 2009 Acropolis Rally, Athanassoulas competed in a Škoda Fabia S2000, winning the PWRC class and finishing eighth overall.

[4] Athanssoulas' first start in the highest class was the 2011 Acropolis Rally, when he presented strong pace, but due to retirement on the first leg and returning later under Rally2 rules classified only 19th.