Hot Rods and Racing Cars #1 is the debut issue of Charlton's pioneering automotive adventure comic, published in November 1951 — one of the first dedicated car-culture comics in American publishing history. The issue launches the series' core characters and format: "Speed Davis Takes Over" (art: Seymour Moskowitz) introduces teenage protagonist Speed Davis, who discovers his late father was a race car driver and commits to carrying on the legacy; "Jimmy Mullane at Indianapolis" dramatizes the worst crashes at the famous 500; "Screwball of the Hot Rods" starring Buster Camshaft provides comedic relief; and biographical non-fiction pieces — including the life of real driver Guy Vaughan and a history of the Soap Box Derby — establish the title's distinctive hybrid of fiction, biography, and automotive education. 36 pages, full color; cover price $0.10.

Hot Rods and Racing Cars began being published by Charlton Comics in November 1951 and would go on to last a hundred and twenty issues, with stories set across the international racing circuit including the Indianapolis Speedway, Le Mans, Bonneville, Sebring, and Pebble Beach. Both Fawcett Comics and Charlton Comics launched a race-car comic title in the same month — November 1951 — reflecting the sudden cultural momentum around hot-rodding and motorsport in postwar America. Charlton published the series under the Motor Magazines Inc. imprint, with editor Al Fago (later credited on the masthead as "Alfred V. Fago"), out of the Charlton Building, Derby, Connecticut. The series was closely associated with artist Jack Keller, a comic veteran and car enthusiast who became its defining visual voice across multiple Charlton racing titles.

Today, Hot Rods and Racing Cars #1 is culturally significant as a document of the early 1950s hot rod craze and the dawn of American car culture as mass entertainment. 89 issues of the series are freely available to read on Comic Book Plus, dating from 1951 to 1967, making it one of the most accessible long-running public-domain comic series of the Golden Age. For collectors, issue #1 is the key first issue of the longest-running dedicated car-racing comic in US history. The blend of fictional adventure (Speed Davis), real-event dramatizations (Indianapolis 500), humor (Buster Camshaft), and car-culture education (Soap Box Derby, driver biographies) established a template that Charlton would sustain for over two decades and numerous spin-off titles.