Smokey is the veteran racer Lightning McQueen asks to train him in Pixar's Cars 3.
After McQueen struggles against Jackson Storm, he travels to Thomasville with trainer Cruz Ramirez. There he meets Smokey, Doc Hudson's former crew chief and mentor, who understands Doc's racing history and the techniques that once made him successful.
Smokey helps McQueen reconnect with the lessons he learned from Doc. He explains how Doc's career ended after a new generation of racers pushed him aside, giving McQueen a personal historical parallel to his own situation.
Doc Hudson is McQueen's mentor in the first film, but he is not the trainer in Cars 3 because the character has already died. Louise Nash and River Scott are former racers who appear in the Thomasville sequence, while Cal Weathers is a current competitor.