Herein, the effect of deformation rate on the residual stress distribution, carbide precipitation behavior and hardness of the cold rolled expanding deep groove ball bearing rings of GCr15 steel were studied by means of microstructure observation, residual stress and mechanical property measurements as well as finite element simulation. According to the finite element simulation with three different feed rates of 0.50, 0.70 and 0.90 mm/s respectively for the cold rolling process, it follows that the mean residual compressive stress on the outer surface of the bearing ring is -170.49 MPa when the feed rate is 0.50 mm/s, which is only 6.49% different from the experimental result of -160.10 MPa, indicating the reliability of the simulation. With the increase of feed rate, the deformation rate of the ring increases, the relative deformation between the core and the surface layer increases, and the residual stress also increases. The carbides in the inner surface layer of the ring are uniformly distributed and fine. The distribution of carbides is the densest and their average size is the smallest and their average size is the smallest in the groove. The hardness of the ring varies along the radial direction, the inner surface has greater hardness than the outer surface, and the groove position has the maximum hardness.