diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index b4c9f70ce9..ba8268db43 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -11,6 +11,7 @@ Copy and pasting the git commit messages is __NOT__ enough.
 ## [Unreleased]
 ### Added
 - Added action formatting option to `hiway-v0`.
+- Introduced `debug: serial: bool` option to driving smarts benchmark config.
 ### Changed
 - Moved action and observation conversions from `smarts.env.gymnasium.utils` to `smarts.env.utils`.
 ### Deprecated
diff --git a/smarts/benchmark/driving_smarts/v0/config.yaml b/smarts/benchmark/driving_smarts/v0/config.yaml
index 7c715c6605..da20af56a2 100644
--- a/smarts/benchmark/driving_smarts/v0/config.yaml
+++ b/smarts/benchmark/driving_smarts/v0/config.yaml
@@ -12,6 +12,8 @@ benchmark:
         - https://codalab.lisn.upsaclay.fr/competitions/6618
         - https://smarts-project.github.io/archive/2022_nips_driving_smarts/
   eval_episodes: 50
+  debug:
+    serial: False
   shared_env_kwargs:
     seed: 42
     headless: true
@@ -41,4 +43,4 @@ benchmark:
     #   kwargs:
     #     scenario_dirs:
     #       - "./scenarios/naturalistic/waymo"
-    #       - "./scenarios/naturalistic/ngsim"
+    #       - "./scenarios/naturalistic/ngsim"
\ No newline at end of file
diff --git a/smarts/benchmark/entrypoints/benchmark_runner_v0.py b/smarts/benchmark/entrypoints/benchmark_runner_v0.py
index 3d1c81d599..4aaa8a7b0f 100644
--- a/smarts/benchmark/entrypoints/benchmark_runner_v0.py
+++ b/smarts/benchmark/entrypoints/benchmark_runner_v0.py
@@ -21,7 +21,7 @@
 # THE SOFTWARE.
 import logging
 import os
-from typing import List, Tuple
+from typing import Callable, Dict, Generator, List, Tuple
 
 import gymnasium as gym
 import psutil
@@ -39,6 +39,10 @@
 
 @ray.remote(num_returns=1)
 def _eval_worker(name, env_config, episodes, agent_config, error_tolerant=False):
+    return _eval_worker_local(name, env_config, episodes, agent_config, error_tolerant)
+
+
+def _eval_worker_local(name, env_config, episodes, agent_config, error_tolerant=False):
     import warnings
 
     warnings.filterwarnings("ignore")
@@ -81,7 +85,7 @@ def _eval_worker(name, env_config, episodes, agent_config, error_tolerant=False)
     return name, score
 
 
-def _task_iterator(env_args, benchmark_args, agent_args, log_workers):
+def _parallel_task_iterator(env_args, benchmark_args, agent_args, log_workers):
     num_cpus = max(1, min(len(os.sched_getaffinity(0)), psutil.cpu_count(False) or 4))
 
     with suppress_output(stdout=True):
@@ -110,6 +114,19 @@ def _task_iterator(env_args, benchmark_args, agent_args, log_workers):
         ray.shutdown()
 
 
+def _serial_task_iterator(env_args, benchmark_args, agent_args, *args, **_):
+    for name, env_config in env_args.items():
+        print(f"Evaluating {name}...")
+        name, score = _eval_worker_local(
+            name=name,
+            env_config=env_config,
+            episodes=benchmark_args["eval_episodes"],
+            agent_config=agent_args,
+            error_tolerant=ERROR_TOLERANT,
+        )
+        yield name, score
+
+
 def benchmark(benchmark_args, agent_args, log_workers=False):
     """Runs the benchmark using the following:
     Args:
@@ -118,6 +135,7 @@ def benchmark(benchmark_args, agent_args, log_workers=False):
         debug_log(bool): Whether the benchmark should log to stdout.
     """
     print(f"Starting `{benchmark_args['name']}` benchmark.")
+    debug = benchmark_args.get("debug", {})
     message = benchmark_args.get("message")
     if message is not None:
         print(message)
@@ -133,7 +151,9 @@ def benchmark(benchmark_args, agent_args, log_workers=False):
             )
     named_scores = []
 
-    for name, score in _task_iterator(
+    iterator = _serial_task_iterator if debug.get("serial") else _parallel_task_iterator
+
+    for name, score in iterator(
         env_args=env_args,
         benchmark_args=benchmark_args,
         agent_args=agent_args,