Human!Lightning McQueen x Reader (Title TBD)

Love and Fear

10/1/23

You started your engine, the front of your car resting perfectly above a crude line drawn into the dusty ground from a sturdy foot dragged along the surface. Readjusting your fingers to find the best rest for your hands, you glanced to your passenger side, making eye contact with Doc. He was standing on the bank a few feet away, standing beside his car. He held a stopwatch in his hand, a walkie-talkie radio in the other.

Revving your engine a few more times simply for the enjoyment of hearing your precious car hum, you moved your eyes back to the dusty road ahead of you. Taking a deep breath, you closed your eyes to try and instill a relaxing rhythm in your heart.

"And... GO!" Doc's voice came through the walkie-talkie clipped to the glove compartment on your passenger side.

Your eyes snapped open, a raging fire burning in your eyes as you pressed the pedal to the medal. Tires briefly grasping for traction on the sand, the second they were able to you car went flying down the path ahead at a professional's speed. "Yeah, baby!" You hollered excitedly through a hearty laugh.

Approaching the first turn of Willy's Butte, you couldn't help the enormous grin that rose to your face as the scale of the curved rock wall set in. A strange yet natural formation in the land, the dusty path curved right up and onto the steep slope, meaning one's car would eventually be at roughly a forty-five degree angle to the ground. It probably seemed intimidating to some, for in a way they would be leaving the ground per se, but to you, it was heavenly!

You flew into the curved turn, going at it a little sharper and in more of a direct fashion than you knew Doc did. Although it meant you would be slower in the heat of the turn, you knew the payoff was far greater than those few moments of stunted speed. Coming to the apex of your drift, your car seemed to stand in place for a moment before you ultimately started to veer to the left and came barreling out of the turn at sky-high speed.

That exact turn, everything about it, was just one of your reasons for loving the art of racing. It was nothing short of thrilling every time. When you start to go up the turn, and you feel yourself shifting the gravity around you, it feels like you have taken off into the air, flying right off the ground with nobody to stop you.

1: The thrill of feeling the world change around you in miraculous ways.

You had passed turn one and two with ease. Now was the straightaway parallel to where you had started on the other side of the track. You felt your car jumping and jostling around as you swiftly hit every little dip and hump in the rocky dirt road. It felt as if your car was jumping on its own, pressing off its own wheels to leap into the air as if jumping hurdles. You couldn't help but laugh and whoop at the top of your lungs with nothing more than pure, lively ecstasy.

Another reason of yours for why you loved racing so very, very much. Every track had its own purpose, it's own story, it's own history. Every track was a new experience waiting to happen, which was perfect for the amount of curiosity you had carried even since you were a child, and it was ever growing too. It always left you dumbfounded that you could just feel a track in a way unlike any non-racer ever would, Knowing exactly what terrain you were on, and maybe even where in the world you were driving, just by the feel of it's bumps and curves and dips.

2: Every individual track is different, and it gives you a more personal feel for the world around you. Enticing!

Now, it was finally time. You were approaching turn three, the best part of the track. Narrowing your eyes at the challenge that the track bestowed upon you a little ways ahead, you shimmied your shoulders as you adjusted yourself in your seat, flexing your fingers before tightly clenching them around the rim of your steering wheel. A large, cocky smirk came to your face as you prepared yourself for the move that Doc had mastered many years ago: The Powerslide.