The material behaviors of two types of bearing steels at hot working conditions are investigated. Stress‐strain curves at various temperatures (900∼1,250°C) and strain rates (1∼50 /sec) are obtained by compression tests with a computer controlled servo‐hydraulic Gleeble 3800 testing machine. Elongation and reduction of the area are also obtained by tensile tests. Flow stresses are calculated from the experiments and are used to predict the temperature distribution and the metal flow of a workpiece during a multi‐stage hot forging process of a bearing race. A rigid‐thermoviscoplastic finite element method is applied. The experimental and numerical results are summarized to reveal the reasons for internal crack formation.