I know it seems silly, but Dale Earnhardt is someone you do not speak ill of in the southeastern United States if you value your safety.

'Number 3' has a particularly high level of reverence amongst folks from the south of all opinions and philosophies, the others are by far more historically relevant but "Raise Hell Praise Dale!" is a rallying cry for proud people of the south and has been since he started racing. He was also pretty based politically: working class champion, ripped down a confederate flag he had flown immediately after it was explained to him what it meant to black Americans versus what he had been taught at a time in which most didn't bat an eye at that sort of thing. The only person on the list that will elicit a more emphatic reaction from a person from that part of the country is Dolly Parton.

Dale Earnhardt is worshipped like a demigod in the South.