Maize is one of the most important crops in the world. The maize yield accounts for 41.5% of gross grain yields in China. Stalk rot seriously harms maize production, reducing the yield and quality and increasing the difficulty in mechanized corn harvesting. Furthermore, the pathogens causing stalk rot produces mycotoxins that contaminate roughage forage and hazard the safety of livestock. Up to date, more than 30 kinds of fungi causing maize stalk rot have been isolated and identified, among which Fusarium spp. and Pythium spp. are the main pathogenic fungi in China. Soil inoculation, root injury method, drilling inoculation and toothpick method are the commonly used methods to identify maize resistance to stalk rot. Some maize germplasm with excellent stalk rot resistance have been identified from thousands of resources. Resistance genetic analysis and gene mining were carried out in some materials, and 46 loci with stalk rot resistance were mapped, and then resistance mechanism was analyzed by multi-omics analysis. Two genes, ZmCCT and ZmAuxRP1, were cloned and the resistance mechanism was explored. Even so, there are still few cases of resistant maize varieties with high yield and quality cultivated widely in production practice. In this paper, the advances in maize stalk rot resistance were summarized from the aspects, including diverse pathogens and ^{regional distribution,} mycotoxins, identification and screening of resistant maize germplasm resources, resistance genetics, resistance gene mining and cloning, and mechanism exploring. Some current problems and future prospects were put forward. The main aim is to provide reference for the research on maize resistance to stalk rot.