In Pixar’s Cars 3, Cruz Ramirez helps Lightning McQueen prepare for the Florida 500. Cruz is a highly trained racing technician and simulator coach at the Rust-eze Racing Center.
Lightning initially dislikes the center’s technology because he believes modern training methods cannot replace his experience. Cruz is assigned to coach him, and their work takes them away from the center to places including a demolition derby and Thunder Hollow. These experiences improve Lightning’s adaptability while revealing Cruz’s own unfulfilled ambition to become a racer.
At the Florida 500, Cruz ultimately takes over Lightning’s race car and competes under number 95. Their partnership changes the film’s central idea from preserving one champion’s career to passing knowledge between generations. Cruz is not Lightning’s sponsor or his girlfriend; Sally Carrera fills the latter role, while Rust-eze remains his racing sponsor.