Which retired racer mentors Lightning McQueen in Pixar's Cars?

Doc Hudson is the retired racer who mentors Lightning McQueen in Pixar's Cars.

Doc lives in Radiator Springs as the town's physician and judge, but his past is revealed to be far more prestigious. He was a champion racer known as the Hudson Hornet and won three Piston Cups. After a serious crash and an unsympathetic return to racing, he withdrew from the public racing world.

Lightning initially sees Doc as an obstacle, but Doc's experience teaches him that racing requires more than speed. Their relationship becomes one of the film's central emotional developments. Doc eventually supports McQueen during the Piston Cup finale, helping him understand sportsmanship and loyalty.

Paul Newman provided Doc Hudson's voice in the original Cars and Cars 2. Newman died in 2008, so the character appears only through archival material and references in Cars 3. Doc is not the same character as Strip Weathers, known as The King, who is an active veteran racer in the first film.