What's racist about his comment? It may be accurate or inaccurate; to tell you the truth I've never paid attention to Mexicans and their cars. But how is the comment racist?
It's racist in that it seems to be "a belief or doctrine that inherent differences among the various human races determine cultural or individual achievement, usually involving the idea that one's own race or color is superior." I don't know what Pat's race is, but if he's not Mexican and just being ironic, I'd say it was pretty racist. Really, are you a closet racist? "No, I just tell it like is." I imagine that's how Pat would respond to such a question. The real idea behind Pat's comment is that Mexicans are lazy. You really don't see that as racist?
Except that 'Mexican' is an ethnicity, not a race. His comment may be xenophobic but not racist according to your definition. More importantly, this is a comic strip about a bunch of cartoon cats so before you guys start competetively writing yellow manifestos in the snow, let's all grab a big double handful of reality, shall we?
Oh, come on! Now you're not even playing the game! Anyway, race is such an elusive term. In a class we are studying Nietzsche right now, and he uses the word race all the time to refer to what we now call ethnicity or even nationality. More recently, I read a publisher's reaction to a harsh review of a book by a Swiss author. The reviewer was called "racist against the Swiss." It was a bogus claim because the reviewer wasn't bigoted in any way, but it was understood what the publisher meant. It's not like there is a solid scientific defintion for what race is. Or is there?
Also, I doubt racism developed because people felt bad about themselves. There are lots of theories of what racism is and how it developed. One interesting one is an economic theory, that it developed to justify slavery. But today it generally means putting a race/ethnicity down by using stereotypes.
I didn't call Pat a racist. At least I don't think I did. He's a talking cat. But the comment seems racist, or at least an example of thinly veiled racism (bigotry, whatever).
But yeah, he's a dick.