Lightning McQueen

Lightning McQueen is a former Piston Cup racer and the main protagonist of Cars, the secondary protagonist of Cars 2 and again the main protagonist of Cars 3.

Cars
Lightning McQueen is shown to be a rookie in the first Cars movie. He is first seen racing with the King and Chick Hicks in the Dinoco 400. When Chick causes a huge crash, Lightning uses it to his advantage and uses the time while the others are in the pits to take the lead. As the race continues, Lightning gains a huge lead but rejects getting tires from his pit crew. But just as he is about to win his first Piston Cup, two of his tires blow, resulting in a tie.

After the race, Lightning went to his trailer, only to find it missing. Mack, Lightning's hauler, had parked it over at McQueen's sponsor's tent because he had to make his personal appearance. Rusty and Dusty Rust-eze were telling the rusty cars about cars that they once knew when Lightning and Mack are watching them. Sneaking and disguised as a stand on, Lightning tries to sneak into his trailer but the cutout falls down. On the stage, the two Rust-eze owners talk to him. Lightning gives a pep talk, before saying his catchphrase and backing into his trailer. Once in the trailer, he angrily mutters "Not on your life".

While traveling to California, Lightning gets a call from Harv, an agent of his, who tells him about how he heard about the race in LA and says he'll meet Lightning there. Mack was very tired. When Mack tries to stay awake but fails. Then, four tuner cars known as the Delinquent Road Hazards (consisting of Boost, Snot Rod, Wingo and DJ) are racing along the road and put Mack to sleep. They then proceed to push Mack to the hard shoulder, causing his back door to open and Lightning to fall out. When Lightning gets onto the road, he swerves to avoid getting hit by oncoming traffic. Lightning then spotted a truck that was mistaken as Mack and followed towards a train track where a train was about to cross. Just before the train could hit Lightning, he jumped across the tracks just in time and finally, catch up with the truck. But, Lightning finds out that the truck isn't Mack, the truck was a battery recycle named Peterbilt, as he drove away.

Lightning then thought Mack might be on the interstate, but he took a wrong turn down Route 66. When Sheriff, ???, woke up