"Fast Car" is the debut single by American singer-songwriter Tracy Chapman, released on April 6, 1988, by Elektra Records, as the lead single from her 1988 self-titled debut studio album. Chapman's appearance at the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute concert in June 1988 helped the song become a top-ten hit in the United States, reaching number six on the Billboard Hot 100, and led the album to top the Billboard 200. The single also reached number five on the UK Singles Chart.

"Fast Car" received three nominations at the 31st Annual Grammy Awards in 1989: Record of the Year, Song of the Year, and Best Female Pop Vocal Performance, the last of which it won. It also received an MTV Video Music Award nomination for Best Female Video.

Since the release of Chapman's original, the song has had success in two electronic dance versions by Swedish DJ Tobtok and British DJ Jonas Blue, as well as a country cover by American singer Luke Combs. Combs's version was a number-one single on the Billboard Hot Country Songs and Country Airplay charts in 2023, and won Chapman the Country Music Association Award for Song of the Year, making her the first black person to win the award.

According to Metro Weekly critic Chris Gerard, "Fast Car" tells the story of a working woman trying to escape the cycle of poverty, set to "glowing folk rock". In a 2010 interview, Chapman explained that the song wasn't "directly autobiographical," but rather "very generally represents the world that I saw it when I was growing up in Cleveland, Ohio, coming from a working class background."

I’ve raised by single mom, I was just watching people, being in a community of people who were struggling. So everyone was really just 1. Working hard 2. hoping that things would get better. In part everything that a person writes is autobiographical but the songs are directly so and most of them were not and Fast Car wasn’t one that was directly autobiographical. I never had a Fast Car, it’s just a story about a couple, how they are trying to make a life together and they face challenges.

The song's arrangement was described by Orlando Sentinel writer Thom Duffy as "subtle folk-rock", while Billboard magazine's Gary Trust deemed the record a "folk/pop" song. Critic Dave Marsh called it an "optimistic folk-rock narrative" about characters living in a homeless shelter.

Elektra Records released "Fast Car" as a single on April 6, 1988, one day after the album Tracy Chapman. That June, Chapman appeared at the Nelson Mandela 70th Birthday Tribute concert, where she was scheduled to sing three songs. Just before surprise guest Stevie Wonder walked onstage, he learned that his keyboard's floppy disk had gone missing. He left in a panic, forcing the event organizers to usher Chapman back to the stage with nothing but a microphone and her guitar. As the organizers readied the stage for the following act, Chapman performed "Fast Car" and "Across the Lines". This performance brought widespread attention to her music, with sales for Tracy Chapman increasing enough for it to top the Billboard 200 chart on August 27, 1988. "Fast Car" itself would reach number six on the Billboard Hot 100 the same week.

A remastered recording was issued by Elektra in 2015.