The visitors were unlucky not the take the lead early on through Ronaldo, who had his goal chalked off for offside, before they took the advantage through Santiago Solari shortly after.
The Argentinian collected Zinedine Zidane's lay off to drill a left-footed effort past Manchester United keeper Ricardo for the opening goal.
Their joy was short-lived however when Yossi Benayoun was on hand to tap home from close-range after Real failed to clear from a long free-kick.
Racing could have added to their effort from Benayoun, however Iker Casillas made a string of fine saves to deny the home side.
Real will be without star striker Ronaldo for their upcoming UEFA Champions League clash against Bayern are he was forced out of game with a suspected hamstring injury.
Valencia capitalised on Real's draw after beating 10-man Deportivo La Coruna 3-0 at El Estadio Mestalla.
Ruben Baraja missed the chance to open the scoring when his spot-kick was saved after 10 minutes.
However, they were awarded a second penalty when Mauro Silva brought down Pablo Aimar in the box which resulted in him seeing red.
Vicente made no mistake from their second effort, crashing his left-footed drive into the corner of the net.
Despite controlling proceedings, Che had to wait until injury time at the end of the contest before Vicente netted his second and Juan Sanchez headed in to complete the scoring.
Espanyol did their hopes of avoiding the drop no harm following a thumping 5-1 victory over fellow strugglers Celta Vigo.
The Catalan side were in control at the break thanks to goals from Raul Tamudo and former Aston Villa man Mustapha Hadji.
Tamudo netted his second after the half time interval from the spot, before an own goal from Sergi and Gregory Vignal put the icing on the cake.
There was some joy for the home fans, those who were still inside the ground in injury-time, when Edu scored a consolation.
Real Socidedad rescued a late point in a 1-1 draw at Osasuna after Darko Kovacevic levelled matters on 85 minutes after Pierre Webo put the home side ahead early.
Click below for match summaries:
Celta Vigo 1-5 Espanyol
Osasuna 1-1 Real Sociedad
Racing Santander 1-1 Real Madrid
Valencia 3-0 D Coruna
Click here for the latest La Liga table.
