What's that stuff on the inside of the wheel well supposed to be?

New owner of a used 2006 basic model Prius.
So we had a snowstorm recently, during which my wheels spun. A lot. Tossing the 'glow of the fresh fallen snow' against the whatever-that-is that faces the wheel, in the wheel well.
Turns out the guy who owned it before dinged that whatever up a bit, because when I got home and looked I saw that on my driver's side front wheel, enough snow had been spun/tossed into the area of the undercarriage that curves over the wheel (this is a bit hard to explain, let me know if I've failed utterly) that snow had gotten into the place he apparently shattered in there....leaving a razor edged multidagger piece of plastic 'stuff that lines the car part over the wheel in the wheel well....so stuffed with snow that it was bulging out like it was pregnant, which pushed that plastic shattered dagger shape from concave to convex and pointing it so it was within an inch of being so far pushed towards my wheel that it would nearly have slit at the wheel every revolution.
So I looked up at the stuff that lines the wheel-well on the other 3 tires. It doesn't look right- like, there is some kinda rectangle on either side that deflects but by no means wholly protects the under body from spun snow, and there is some kinda wiring towards the underside of the car itself, and some kinda almost rod like thing exposed in there and....

Since all this is a bit too weird to explain well I'll skip to my main question:

When the weather clears up I'm going to have to tke the car to an auto body shop to have them look at the plastic dagger part, because that just looks dangerous. But I'm wondering: 2006 Prius, wheel well (the part of the car that the tire tread would hit if the wheel could be inflated until it hit the wheel well.... Is that SUPPOSED to have some kinda cover over it? Like, individually replaceable thing lining the wheel well?

I ask because if it has individual covers I'll probably only HAVE to pay for the one dangerous one to be replaced. Otherwise it looks like I'd be having to buy an entire undercarriage covering, and that sounds very pricey. The car itself was 8.x k out of door at the dealer, as-is.

And yes, I did take it to a trusted mechanic before I bought it, so I can only guess he didn't think to look for this kind of damage. He must have had it up on a lift or looked under it with a mirror because he warned me that it had some (he said 30%, whatever that means) rust from its time in Montana, and he also said that was an OK amount of rust to be able to drive the car for the many good years. Not to get sidetracked, just knew some one would be sure to wanna know if I'd just bought it without getting it looked at.

I don't know if its relevant but I noticed CarFax showed repair/replace undercarriage about 5 years ago. I was thinking maybe that's how the front wheel well got that jagged chipped area that started this question many many words ago...
Thanks for any info.

 

I'll work on that, however the really useful pic would have been when the broken plastic part was in convex position nearly pregnant with the snow spun into the space behind it pressing it towards within an inch or so of my tire. I got enough snow out to make it concave again, so it won't look like much, just a shattered small space on the plastic wheel well liner.
However I'll see what I can do, for whatever benefit it may be.

 

No, I just said that because I was afraid you might think too highly of my lete used auto buying skills when I am busily stacking up rental fees each day and finding new ways that sketchy people who run used car lots scam consumers.

The real number was 8 k out of door and I didn't have to keep going to squalid vulterous used car lots to get pressured and I didn't have to pay ~ $800 a month in rental fees.

Did I mention I bought it at that price KNOWING it had a small engine gasket leak that I'll have to pay $1,800+ to get fixed some time in the next few years? Assuming something catastrophic else doesn't go wrong first.

 

Cool. Thank you.

 

That's useful info, thank you.

 

Hummm. In what probably wasn't coincidental, right around that time the front drivers side and back drivers side head/rear lamps went out/burnt out/shorted out. Dealer fixed those for free tho'.

If the 'odd thing' was a wheel well cover, and that object guards against water (or snow) splashing up into the main car and fogging up the lights, it would make sense. Thank you.