Doc Hudson is Lightning McQueen's mentor and a former Piston Cup champion in Pixar's Cars.
Doc is the town doctor and judge in Radiator Springs, but he once raced as the Fabulous Hudson Hornet. The film reveals that he won three Piston Cups before a crash ended his racing career and left him overlooked by the racing world.
His experience makes him the ideal teacher for McQueen, whose speed is not matched by patience or teamwork at the start of the story. Doc teaches him to turn effectively on dirt and, more importantly, helps him understand the value of the community around him.
Doc is modeled on the Hudson Hornet, an American automobile famous for its “step-down” design and stock-car racing success in the early 1950s. Paul Newman voiced Doc in the first Cars film, making the character especially memorable.