Among his brothers, he proved to have the prodigious basketball skills which gave him a spot in Ateneo de Manila University's varsity team.

Under new San Miguel head coach Ron Jacobs, Racela's skills were noticed under a rebuilding Beermen squad of Nelson Asaytono, Freddie Abuda and Mike Mustre.

A season later, with Racela as its top point guard, San Miguel became the league's new dynasty under Jong Uichico, winning five titles from 1999 to 2001.

Some argued that the blame rested on Jong Uichico's coaching strategy in which he did not set up a plan to ease Racela's pressure from the 15 foot line.

In 2004, he dished his 2,000th career assist and was the starting point guard when the Beermen won another title in the 2005 PBA Fiesta Conference.

Starting in the 2007-08 All Filipino Conference, Racela occasionally played off the bench in preparation for his retirement and later life as an assistant coach.

On August 11, 2010, Racela became the fifth player alongside Ramon Fernandez, Robert Jaworski, Abet Guidaben & Philip Cezar to play at least 900 games in the PBA.

He had played the entire finals series before he hanged up his #17 jersey in which Talk 'N Text Tropang Texters subdued San Miguel Beermen in 6 games.