We explore the dynamics of thin accretion disks, the radius of black hole shadows, observed intensities, and the visual characteristics of Born-Infeld BTZ black holes in massive gravity. We find out the relations for angular velocity, specific energy, and angular momentum of particles around the black hole. We observe that intense Born-Infeld electromagnetic effects lead to a reduction in the rotational motion of particles within the accretion disk, and the massive gravity slows down the orbital motion of these particles. We reveal that the influence of massive gravity parameter correlates with a reduction in the black hole’s shadow size, which suggests that massive gravity effects intensify the gravitational fields, thereby reducing the angular diameter of the shadows. On the other hand, a higher Born-Infeld parameter enlarges the black hole’s shadow, which manifests a visual relationship between the black hole’s physical dimensions and its gravitational influence. Moreover, we also uncover the optical characteristics of Born-Infeld BTZ black holes, which show that the Born-Infeld parameter greatly influences the electromagnetic field around the black hole, which affects energy distribution in the space. Finally, we observe that massive gravity significantly influences the spacetime structure near black holes, which is crucial for grasping gravitational lensing and the dynamics of accretion disks under such extreme conditions.