A hybrid electric vehicle and a driving mode control method are provided to prevent overheating of an electric motor. The hybrid electric vehicle is chargeable using external power. The method includes collecting forward driving information when a state of charge of a battery is equal to or greater than a first value and calculating a driving load for each section based on the forward driving information. A risk of overheating of an electric motor is predicted using the calculated driving load. The vehicle is driven in a first mode using drive power of an engine in a section in which the predicted risk of overheating is greater than a second value and in a second mode using drive power of the electric motor in a section in which the predicted risk of overheating is equal to or less than apreset value.