The rare earth (RE) based alloys or compounds with excellent cryogenic magnetocaloric performance have received much research interest recently due to their potential applications of environmental friend magnetic refrigeration (MR) technology. Herein, three ternary RE-based carbide compounds RE2Cr2C3 (RE = Er, Ho, and Dy) were synthesized, an investigation of combined experimental and theoretical has been performed with regard to crystal structure, magnetic properties, magnetic phase transition as well as the magnetocaloric effect (MCE) and magnetocaloric performance. All the RE2Cr2C3 carbide compounds are crystallized in the orthorhombic type crystal structure (C12/m1 space group). The magnetic ground state was confirmed to be ferromagnetic (FM) for Er2Cr2C3, whereas antiferromagnetic (AFM) for Ho2Cr2C3 and Dy2Cr2C3 compounds by density functional theory calculation in addition to experimental observation. Large cryogenic MCE has been observed with the maximum isothermal magnetic entropy change (-ΔSMmax) of 15.20, 13.98 and 9.04 J/kgK for Er2Cr2C, Ho2Cr2C3 and Dy2Cr2C3 under the magnetic field change (ΔH) of 0–5 T, respectively. Additionally, low field table-like MCE has been achieved in the Er2Cr2C3/Ho2Cr2C3 composites, which is benefit for active applications. These results assess and highlight the potential applicative interest of RE2Cr2C3 carbide compounds in the field of cryogenic MR.