Harley Leland Race was an American professional wrestler. During his career he boasted the victory of eight NWA World Heavyweight Championships, in a historical period in which wrestlers hardly won titles on multiple occasions.

He has worked for all major US promotions including the National Wrestling Alliance, American Wrestling Association, World Wrestling Federation and World Championship Wrestling. He was the first NWA United States Heavyweight Champion, and is remembered as one of the greatest champions of any era.

In 2000 he opened Harley Race's Wrestling Academy, a training facility for future new talent. In 2014, the Italian wrestlers Karim Brigante, Flavio Augusto, Chris Steel, and Dave Blasco were part of this academy. Karim Brigante and Miss Monica fought there, under the name of Roman Dynasty and the latter was the first Italian to tread a WWE ring in the modern era, when in an episode of Monday Night Raw she was defeated by Nia Jax.

On March 1, 2019, longtime friend Ric Flair announced that Race had been diagnosed with lung cancer and the following August 1, Harley died at the age of 76.