An Edgeloop is...well..just that.
A loop of edges. On a triangulated mesh, double clicking an edge will do nothing, edgeloops only exist on quadrangulated meshes. Just make a cube with some subdivisions, double click on an edge and you'll see that the selected edges form a loop.
Anyway, just a kind word of warning - if this car is from the original Alan Wake game or otherwise copyrighted (not sure what you meant with "imported import? Is it fan-made?), the mods will probably not allow you to advertise or link to your custom story or full conversion here. There's a pretty strict rule concerning copyrighted content in these forums and while one can certainly argue whether or not it makes sense, that's just the way it is right now
Speaking of polycount though: It's quite high for hpl standards, but it won't kill an average PC to have that car in a level of yours either...if it's only in the level once or twice and not spammed 50 times to simulate a traffic jam, you probably won't feel a hit on performance. It IS a model that was made for a game after all (and a console game no less!), not a highpoly for movies and the like!
As for the invisibility problem: Try what martinnord suggested - Backface culling to see if there are flipped polygons (shading> backface culling, right above maya's viewport) and separate your meshes so that there's one mesh per material instead of several materials on one mesh. (select parts you want to separate from the rest, then use mesh> extract)