History Characters / CarsFirstFilm

* PornStache: It's... Just look at it.

* CharacterDevelopment: He goes from a selfish {{Jerkass}} to a more sympathetic JerkWithAHeartOfGold in the first movie. [[spoiler: Come the third, not only is he still the warmhearted racing legend of today, he is also a wise and proud teacher just like Doc was.]]

* ChickMagnet: Sally, Lizzie, Mia, and Tia all get a crush on him in the first movie. Also, during the first race, a woman can be heard screaming “I LOVE YOU, LIGHTNING!” at one point.

** The ''Cars 3'' advertisements play up his return to the role of protagonist, but [[spoiler: it's, ultimately, Cruz Ramirez's rise to glory as a racer. Though he does play a pivotal part in it]].

** While it's hinted as far as the first movie, the first episode of ''Cars on the Road'' reveals that he's highly knowledgable about paleontology and dinosaurs.

* NiceGuy: After his post-Main/CharacterDevelopment, Lightning is now friendly and decent to everyone.

A married couple who wander into Radiator Springs whilst looking for the freeway, but are terrified by the clingy and pushy townsfolk. Van is a Ford Winstar and Minny is a Dodge Caravan.

* TheComicallySerious: Lightning can be funnily sarcastic around [[{{Manchild}} Mater]] when he's out of it.

* TheComicallySerious: Lightning can be funnily sarcastic around [[{{Cloudcuckoolander}} Mater]] when he's out of it.

* TheComicallySerious: Lightning can be funnily sarcastic around Mater when he's out of it.

* RecurringExtra: Cameos in all three of the movies and the ''Cars on the Road'' series.

* HeroProtagonist: He becomes the main protagonist of ''Cars 2'' and becomes a spy by the end of the film.

* TheHero: He's the main protagonist of the first and third films and entire franchise.

* TheHero: Of the sequel.

A [[WesternAnimation/ToyStory Pizza Planet Truck]] who makes regular cameos across the films.

* ADayInTheLimelight: Gets a ''Tales from Radiator Springs'' to himself titled "Bugged".

* LaserGuidedKarma: During the end credits, they make the mistake of speeding in Radiator Springs, and they are forced to use Bessie as a result.

%%* CanisLatinicus

* MinnesotaNice: Minny has a thick northern accent and tries to be as polite and approachable as possible.

* DirtyOldWoman: Lizzie is an old Model T who delights in very bad comedy and slapping stickers onto the rears of male cars.

%%* MinnesotaNice

* CulturalTranslation: For the Italian dub, Guido doesn't speak standard Italian, but rather the distinctive local dialect of Ferrari's home city of Modena. His Italian voice is Alex Zanardi, auto racer, future Paralympic handcyclist, and native of Bologna, a city not far from Modena that has a similar dialect.

* EvilCounterpart: To Lightning [=McQueen=]. Both are portrayed as mean and arrogant racecars who cared about nothing but themselves and made fun of other cars. However, Chick goes against the racing code and actually hurts others on the racetrack, and stays that way while [=McQueen=] undergoes [[HeelFaceTurn character development]], hinting at WhatCouldHaveBeen if he hadn't ended up in Radiator Springs. At the end of the film, Chick ends up winning the final race but losing everyone else's respect for making Strip "The King" Weathers crash, while [=McQueen=] gains respect for helping Strip finish the race even when it leads to his own defeat. It's further reinforced given that he UsedToBeASweetKid who helped others, but the abuse of his loved ones turned him into a cruel Jerkass willing to do whatever it took to win, whereas McQueen ultimately improved as a person due to people being willing to push him to be better.

* EvilCounterpart: To Lightning [=McQueen=]. Both are portrayed as mean and arrogant racecars who cared about nothing but themselves and made fun of other cars. However, Chick goes against the racing code and actually hurts others on the racetrack, and stays that way while [=McQueen=] undergoes [[HeelFaceTurn character development]], hinting at WhatCouldHaveBeen if he hadn't ended up in Radiator Springs. At the end of the film, Chick ends up winning the final race but losing everyone else's respect for making Strip "The King" Weathers crash, while [=McQueen=] gains respect for helping Strip finish the race even when it leads to his own defeat.

-->'''Chick:''' (after Lightning rushes out thinking he won the race) Hey, [=McQueen=], that must be really embarrassing. But I wouldn't be worry about it. Because I didn't do it! Hahaha!

* EvilCounterpart: To Lightning [=McQueen=]. Both are portrayed as mean and arrogant racecars who cared about nothing but themselves and made fun of other cars. What makes them different is that at the end of the film, [=McQueen=] ends up losing the final race but is now respected by the other cars since he actually now learned to accept defeat by helping another racecar, Strip "The King" Weathers, cross the finish line after he was crashed by Chick, while Chick ended up winning the same race but ultimately loses respect from everyone else over the aforementioned act to do so, and that doing such is actually against the racing code.
* TheFriendNobodyLikes: In ''WesternAnimation/Cars3'', no one, be it his film crew or any guest being hosted, seems at all fond of Chick himself and merely tolerate him for the sake of his show. Everyone still remembers what he did to earn that Piston Cup; Chick constantly trying to show it off as if it still held relevance doesn't help matters.
* GloryDays: Slightly touched upon in the third movie, he always has his Piston Cup trophy by his side during his show just to let the audience know he won it...despite the fact that he was known to have done it through dirty means.

* JacobMarleyWarning: Basically he represents what Lightning would've become if he hadn't gone to Radiator Springs humbled himself.
* {{Jerkass}}: Even more than Lightning was at first due to him being the BigBad of the first film, albeit Chick seems to get along with his (equally asshole) racing crews better than Lightning. He caused The King's wreck. By the third movie, he's somehow was able to gain his own sports talk show where he does nothing but rip into Lightning for his continued loses against Storm.

** The fact that by ''WesternAnimation/Cars3'', instead of being punished for what is essentially ''attempted murder'' of The King for his ill-gotten Piston Cup, Chick instead became host of a popular television show that's watched by millions ''really'' leaves a '''sour''' taste in one's mouth.

[[caption-width-right:350:''"Hey, [=McQueen=], that must be really embarrassing. But I wouldn't worry about it. Because I didn't do it! Hahaha!"'']]

** He returns as the main villain of the [[VideoGame/{{Cars}} tie-in game]], where he's once again trying to get in the way of Lightning's attempt to win the piston cup. He spends most of the early story as a stadium-exclusive opponent, but jumps up to become the main villain once more upon the revelation that [[spoiler:he paid off the delinquent road hazards to harass Mack and steal Lightning's gear.]]

* TheBadGuyWins: Played with. [[spoiler: While he technically does win the race and Piston Cup by ramming into the King and knocking him off the track, damaging him badly (in a very similar fashion to what happened with Doc years ago) he receives absolutely no praise or cheering after his victory, but rather a series of boos, his own merchandise being pelted at him and likely a permanently ruined reputation as a racecar.]]

** The main antagonist of the first film. He competes with The King and Lightning to be Dinoco's new face and in the last race [[spoiler:he pushes The King off the tracks causing a devastating accident similar to Doc Hudson's]].

[[caption-width-right:350:''"Hey, [=McQueen=], that must be really embarrassing. But I wouldn't be worry about it. Because I didn't do it! Hahaha!"'']]

* EmbarrassingTattoo: A tramp [[SugarWiki/FunnyMoments stamp!]]

* FiveStagesOfGrief: Lighting hits all five beats throughout his stay in the first film: he's unwelcome over the townsfolk at first (denial), is annoyed that he has to fix the road (anger), races Doc at Willy's Butte in an attempt to leave only to fail (bargaining), breaks down for the first time prior to his departure for the race and is reluctant to go (depression), and gives up the Piston Cup to help The King finish, realizing what is really important in life (acceptance).

* [[{{SmittenTeenageGirl}} SmittenTeenageGirls]]: They both have a major crush on Lightning.
* [[{{StalkerWithACrush}} StalkersWithACrush]]: Their official Disney bio says that they haven’t missed a race in over a year, but that they’re not race fans, they’re Lightning [=McQueen=] fans. And at the end of the first movie, they moved to Radiator Springs and become waitresses as Flo’s cafe just so they can be close to Lightning.