

His back bumper is painted yellow, which references the yellow back bumpers of NASCAR rookies' cars. He even has black tires which have on them the Lightyear brand, that is a reference to Goodyear and Buzz Lightyear, and red rims.

His racing number is also displayed on one of them. Additionally, he has several decals of the Piston Cup teams over and under the end of the bolt shape, as well as stickers that look like headlights, which he does not actually have, and are the reason why he is usually called "Stickers" by Sally. His racing number is painted yellow, orange, and red, and is located on his roof and sides. He has a large lightning bolt shape on his sides that is yellow at the front, and orange at the back, and has individual black and white lines. His own name is seen on each side of his roof, and he has chrome bolt stickers on his front fenders. When Lightning gets sponsored by Rust-eze, he has the team's logo on his hood and the back of his sides, along with the name put on his spoiler, which is still a ducktail. Lightning in his original Rust-eze paint job. When he is originally sponsored by Smell Swell in the World of Cars book, he has a red ducktail spoiler, the Smell Swell logo on his hood, and his racing number, 95, painted green on his sides, along with a thin, yellow lightning bolt.

His car model is said to be a stock car and more curvaceous Le Mans endurance racer mixed together, while the Cars Blu-ray Car Finder game states it to be a 2006 handmade one of a kind car. Lightning has blue eyes and primary has warm colors in his paint jobs. He has since learned to enjoy making friends and treat others with respect. However, he transforms into a more sympathetic, understanding, and selfless character during his time in Radiator Springs on Route 66. His sponsors are Rust-eze, a small company selling soothing ointment for rusty old cars, which Lightning hates. After a few grudging performances in his attempts to fix the road, he finally manages to do so. However, he is also something of a perfectionist and will not cease to get something done right, even if it was not in his best interest to indulge in it in the first place as seen when he was tasked by the townsfolk to fix the road that he himself destroyed when he first arrived at their place.

Because of his attitude towards people, he turned out to be rather friendless and became lonely, which is shown when his agent Harv gave him a few tickets to give his ‘friends,’ unaware that Lightning had no friends. He is so full of himself to the point where he claims he does not need any friends and cannot even get anyone's names right.
