The lighting environment significantly affects the drivers’ safety and comfort and vehicles’ carbon emissions in the tunnel. Due to the lack of direct quantitative descriptions of continuous driving behaviors in tunnels, previous studies failed to explain how the integrated lighting environment affects the driving strategies and traffic flow characteristics in the tunnel. Motivated by this gap, a VR-based experiment framework was proposed. This study selected the correlated color temperature (CCT) and road surface luminance, the two optical parameters affecting tunnel driving behaviors most, to distinguish the lighting environments. Nine virtual tunnels were created in Unity with three representative values for each parameter. Based on the Action Point Model (APM), the continuous driving behaviors in tunnels were discretized into sets of action points. Forty-four participants were asked to perform the virtual driving task, and the frequency, amplitude, and location of their action points were analyzed. Results show that high luminance and high CCT can lead to smoother driving. As drivers get closer to the lead vehicle, the impact of lighting environments on drivers weakens. Detailed experimental methodology, behavioral explanations underlying these findings, and practical implications are also discussed in the paper.