Lightning McQueen visits Thomasville to train with Smokey in Pixar’s Cars 3.
After struggling against the high-tech rookie Jackson Storm, McQueen travels with Cruz Ramirez to the former racing center of Thomasville. Smokey, Doc Hudson’s old crew chief and mentor, helps McQueen understand how to use experience and strategy rather than trying to compete exactly like a younger car.
Thomasville is presented as a historic racing town connected to the old Piston Cup era. Its setting allows the film to expand Doc Hudson’s backstory and show how he learned from Smokey after his own racing career was cut short.
The town is fictional, but its dirt-track atmosphere and Southern racing culture draw on real American stock-car traditions. Thomasville is different from Radiator Springs, where McQueen lives, and from the Florida International Super Speedway, where the film’s major modern race takes place.