A finite element inverse analysis is utilized to consider forming effects of an S-rail on the assessment of the crashworthiness with small amount of computation time. A crash analysis can be directly performed after the inverse simulation of a forming process without a smoothing or remeshing scheme. The direct mesh mapping method is used to calculate an initial guess from a sliding constraint surface that is extracted from the die and punch set. Analysis results demonstrate that energy absorption of structures is increased when simulation considers forming effects of thickness variation and work hardening. The finite element inverse analysis is proved to be an effective tool in consideration of forming effects for the crash analysis.