Harley Leland Race (April 11, 1943 – August 1, 2019) was born in Quitman, Missouri, on April 11, 1943. Race was an early fan of professional wrestling, watching programming from the nearby Chicago territory on the DuMont Television Network. After overcoming polio as a child, he began training as a professional wrestler as a teen under former world champions Stanislaus and Wladek Zbyszko, who operated a farm in his native Missouri. While in high school, an altercation with a classmate led to the principal kneeing Race in the back of the head as he tried to break up the fight. Enraged, Race attacked him, resulting in his expulsion. Already 6 ft 1 in (1.85 m) and 225 lb (102 kg), Race decided to get his start in professional wrestling. Race then became the driver of Happy Humphrey who was too large to drive at the time.

Race was recruited by St. Joseph wrestling promoter Gust Karras who hired Race to do odd jobs for his promotion, including chauffeuring the 800 lb (360 kg) Happy Humphrey. Eventually, Race started wrestling on some of his shows and some of Karras' veteran wrestlers helped further Race's training. At the age of 18, he moved to Nashville and began wrestling under the ring name of Jack Long, forming a tag team with storyline brother John Long. The duo quickly captured the Southern Tag Team Championship. Race was seen as a rising star in the business until a car accident put him out of action, with his leg nearly being amputated. His pregnant wife, Vivian Louise Jones, died instantly; they had been married just over a month. Karras heard about his employee's condition, went rushing into the hospital, and blocked the planned amputation, declaring it "over my dead body". In doing so, he saved Race's leg. Although he recovered, doctors told Race that he might never walk again, and his wrestling career was over. Undaunted, Race endured grueling physical therapy for several months and made a full recovery. Race next went on to work for Jack Pfefer and Tony Santos in the Boston territory as the Great Mortimer in 1963.

He returned to the ring in 1964, wrestling for Dory Funk's Amarillo, Texas, territory. This time, he wrestled as Harley Race, after his father told him that he should not work to make anyone else's name famous. Race never again used a different ring name. In Amarillo, Race met fellow up-and-coming wrestler Larry Hennig (later Larry "the Axe" Hennig and father of "Mr. Perfect" Curt Hennig). The two formed a tag team and moved to the American Wrestling Association (AWA).

In the AWA, Race and Hennig branded themselves as "Handsome" Harley Race (which was actually a moniker given to him by fans in Japan) and "Pretty Boy" Larry Hennig, portraying a cocky heel (villain) tag team with a penchant for breaking the rules to win matches. They quickly became top contenders, and in January 1965, they defeated Dick the Bruiser and the Crusher in the sold-out Minneapolis Auditorium to win the AWA World Tag Team Championship.

Two weeks after winning the titles, Race was involved in an altercation at The Chestnut Tree, a restaurant in Minneapolis, Minnesota. After Race confronted a man who was harassing a woman in the restaurant, knocking him unconscious, the man's friend, John Morton, stabbed Race in the back. Race was hospitalized and Morton was arrested.

Race and Hennig were designated to feud with the Bruiser and Crusher and other top teams for the next several years, and were given three title reigns. Verne Gagne, in particular, was promoted as a hated rival of the team, partnering with several other wrestlers in matches, against Race and Hennig during their AWA run. In October 1967, Gagne was credited with "breaking" one of Hennig's legs, thus giving him some much needed time off from the ring. Race (as the storyline went) was allowed to choose a new partner and retain the AWA World Tag Team Championship. Race's choice was Chris Markoff, but the duo was defeated in their first title defense match against the team of Pat O'Connor and Wilbur Snyder in November 1967. For the next several months, Race teamed with Hard Boiled Haggerty (Don Stansauk) who over the years presented Gagne with some of his greatest matches. Together, Race and Haggerty often were cast against Gagne and "Cowboy" Bill Watts. In March 1968, after Hennig's return to the ring, he and Race were back together, though the two never again won the AWA World Tag Team Championship. Despite his tag team success, Race left the AWA after several years at the top of the division to pursue a singles career in the National Wrestling Alliance (NWA).

In 1973, Race took the nickname "Mad Dog" and faced NWA World Heavyweight Champion Dory Funk Jr. in Kansas City. Race emerged from the battle as the new world champion in what was perceived by fans as a stunning upset. Behind the scenes, Funk had pulled out of losing the title to Jack Brisco, citing injuries in a truck accident; in truth, Amarillo promoter Dory Funk Sr. did not want his son losing the title to a fellow babyface (a fan favorite). Race, a known tough street fighter, was under orders from the NWA not to let Funk leave the ring as champion that night. The ending was a "work" with Funk dropping the title in a third fall as planned and TV announcer Bill Kersten dropping the "Mad Dog" nickname during the match.

On October 13, 1978, Race body slammed André the Giant. Race would repeat the feat on January 7, 1979, though it was outside the ring during the match.

Race, after many victories over Dusty Rhodes and other great wrestlers, lost the title to Rhodes in 1981. Rhodes lost the title to up-and-coming star Ric Flair, though Race was able to defeat Flair in St. Louis in 1983 for his seventh reign as champion, breaking the record previously held by Lou Thesz. What followed was one of the classic angles of the 1980s, which led to the first NWA Starrcade event.

Determined not to lose the title again, Race offered a $25,000 bounty to anyone who could eliminate Flair from the NWA. Bob Orton Jr. and Dick Slater attacked Flair, inflicting what appeared to be a career-ending neck injury, and collecting the bounty from Race after Flair announced his retirement. Flair's retirement was a ruse, however, and he eventually returned to action, much to Race's surprise. NWA officials set up a championship rematch, to be titled "Starrcade: A Flare for the Gold". The match was to be held in Flair's hometown of Greensboro, North Carolina, which enraged Race.

Shortly before the event, rival WWF promotor Vince McMahon offered Race $250,000 to no-show the event. After considering the offer to sabotage the event, Race declined and the match went ahead.

Race lost the title to Flair in the bloody and memorable Starcade steel cage match (with Gene Kiniski as the special referee.) Flair jumped on top of Race from the top rope and pinned him to become champion.

Race regained the NWA World Heavyweight Championship for a two-day reign in New Zealand in 1984, after many years, but his loss to Flair at Starrcade was largely seen as the torch-passing from Race to Flair. Flair would go on to credit Race for igniting his career.

Race became involved in the ownership side of wrestling, buying a portion of the Kansas City and later St. Louis territories known as Heart of America Sports Attractions. St. Louis was a stronghold of the NWA, and around this time in 1984, WWF owner Vince McMahon began his invasion of NWA territories, including St. Louis, in his ambition to build a truly national wrestling promotion. Race was enraged, famously confronting Hulk Hogan and the Funk brothers at a WWF event in Kansas City. Race lost over $500,000 as an owner of the Kansas City territory, and despite his championship years being at an end and wishing to retire from active competition, was forced to rely on continuing to wrestle to make a living. He continued to travel in the United States and abroad, and signed with McMahon's WWF in 1986.

In May 1986, Race entered the WWF managed by longtime friend Bobby "the Brain" Heenan, bleaching his hair blond and billing himself again as "Handsome" Harley Race. He made his debut on May 31, 1986, at Superstars of Wrestling taping in Toronto, Canada, defeating SD Jones.

During a time when the WWF did not recognize the existence of other promotions and the accomplishments a wrestler made there, WWF officials came up with a solution to recognize his wrestling pedigree by having him win the King of the Ring tournament on July 14, 1986. After this Race had a "coronation ceremony", as he then had referred to himself as "King" Harley Race, coming to the ring in a royal crown and cape, to the ceremonial accompaniment of the tenth movement (known as "Great Gate of Kiev") of Pictures at an Exhibition by Modest Mussorgsky. After winning a match, Race would make his defeated opponent "bow and kneel" before him. Usually Heenan would assist the defeated opponent to "bow and kneel" by grabbing their hair and forcing them to bow before Race.

He participated in a notable feud with the Junkyard Dog, culminating in a match at WrestleMania III at the Pontiac Silverdome, in which Race cleanly pinned JYD after a belly-to-belly suplex. JYD was required to bow to Race as the winner, but after he bowed and Race got up, JYD attacked Race before leaving with The King's cape to a standing ovation. Race would spend 1987 feuding with Hulk Hogan and Jim Duggan, who during a televised confrontation took Race's crown and robe, though Race later attacked Duggan and took them back. His feud with Duggan was highlighted by an extended brawl at the 1987 Slammy Awards. In early 1988, he suffered an abdominal injury in a match against Hogan in which he tried to hit Hogan, prone on a table at ringside, with a swan dive headbutt. Hogan moved out of the way and Race impacted the table inwards. The metal edge forced its way up into Race's abdomen giving him a hernia. Race continued to work with the injury through WrestleMania IV on March 27, 1988, where he participated in the event's battle royal.

Following this incident and during his recovery, the WWF ran an angle where they acknowledged his injury, and his manager Heenan vowed to crown a new king. Race was absent for six months, finally returning on October 15 to defeat B. Brian Blair in Milan, Italy. He rejoined The Heenan Family, participating with Bobby Heenan's team at Survivor Series. On Dec 3, 1988, on WWF Superstars he defeated Jim Gorman; after the match Race declared that he desired to regain the crown from Haku and complained that Bobby Heenan never visited him in the hospital. On December 17, 1988, at Philadelphia he defeated Danny Davis. After the victory he got onto the microphone and challenged Heenan to bring out Haku to face him. As the month drew to a close Race began to face King Haku on the house show circuit.

Despite Race's anger at his manager, Bobby Heenan came to the Royal Rumble match and cheered both Haku and the former king. Haku was victorious, and Harley Race departed from the WWF.

Race made his return to the NWA at The Great American Bash on July 7, 1990, when he defeated former NWA World Heavyweight Champion Tommy Rich. During a house show match in St. Joseph, Missouri on December 7, 1990, Race sustained a shoulder injury and would ultimately retire from active competition.

Race returned to the ring a final time on a trio of Florida house shows (November 26, 1993, in Davie, Florida, November 27 in Orlando, Florida and November 28 in Jacksonville, Florida), when he substituted for an injured Vader to face Flair. His former rival would come out victorious on each occasion. These would be the last wrestling matches of his career.

As his early wrestling career had been nearly derailed due to a car accident, another car accident in January 1995 forced Race out of the wrestling business altogether. Race required hip replacement surgery, which, along with injuries accumulated after years in the ring, prevented him from even being a manager.

On March 1, 2019, Race's close friend Ric Flair announced that Race was diagnosed with terminal lung cancer. On August 1, 2019, it was revealed by long time friend Dustin Rhodes that Race had died from lung cancer at the age of 76.

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