We study the prime number race for elliptic curves over the function field of a proper, smooth and geometrically connected curve over a finite field. This constitutes a function field analogue of prior work by Mazur, Sarnak and the second author. In this geometric setting, we can prove unconditional results whose counterparts in the number field case are conditional on a Riemann Hypothesis and a linear independence hypothesis on the zeros of the implied $L$-functions. Notably we show that in certain natural families of elliptic curves, the bias generically dissipates as the conductor grows. This is achieved by proving a central limit theorem and combining it with generic linear independence results that will appear in a separate paper. Also we study in detail a particular family of elliptic curves that have been considered by Ulmer. In contrast to the generic case we show that the race exhibits very diverse outcomes, some of which are believed to be impossible in the number field setting. Such behaviors are possible in the function field case because the zeros of Hasse-Weil $L$-functions for those elliptic curves can be proven to be highly dependent among themselves, which is a very non generic situation.

An erratum of this article has been published in 2021.