History Headscratchers / Cars

[[folder: Mater and Frank keeping up with Lightning]]
* When Mater invites Lighting to play with some tractors, one big and mad one appears to chase them down, how are him and Mater able to keep up with Lightning? He is a race car even if his tires are not made for that type of terrain, couldn't he try going at his maximum power?

* Why does Lightning sticking his tongue out to touch the finish line allow him to draw with The King and Chick? His opponents' wheels were ''at'' the finish line and even passed over it entirely just before Lightning hopped over it. The commentators claim it's too close to call, but it's very clear that, since The King and Chick's wheels made it over the line before Lightning's, that Lightning is behind them. His tongue touching it shouldn't factor into it; the wheels should take priority.

** Probably not, but they could've ''feared'' that that's what might have happened.

* [[PixarShorts ''Tokyo Mater'']] apparantly featured the automobile equivalent of nudity, where Kabuto will actually strip any car that challenges him to a race and loses of their modifications, and in the end Kabuto as a result of him losing his own race becomes naked himself. How the heck do you strip a car naked?

*** So [[TheStork The Storkmobile]] brings them.

*** they did, in the first (i think) race sequence of the first movie. she was sitting in the stands, with her parents and has a die cast. i think her name was Polly or somethink.

[[folder:Piston Cup Rules

[[folder: Cars in General]]

* Dear Tropers above. Find 2000ADs Alan Moore's Future Shocks, read "And they were all empty". Comic strip explanation from everyone's favourite bearded comics writer!

*** I alway thought it was obvios; the gas is liquid, so its a DRINK, like coffee or something, and the food is, well food.
* I can not be the only one bothered by Betsy. Is she a corpse or something?

** An alternate scene in the first film has Lightning put into a construction machine rather than pulling one after they move his engine over during the night. The rule seems to be that your engine is where your brain is, therefore no engine=no brain. See the entry further down for more details.

* Are there any motorcycles in ''Cars'' universe? I've seen planes, blimps, boats, trains, yachts, possible submarine-fishes (assuming the fishing boat in the sequel had intention to [[FurryConfusion fish]] [[MindScrew some of them]]); yet I can't remember seeing any motorcycles.

[[folder: Cars 1]]

* The homologation rules for the Piston Cup must be a hell of a lot looser than the stock car series that it's based on. How else could you explain why a Plymouth Superbird is taking on a 1980s Buick, which is taking on the love child of a stock car and a Group 5 sports car? Actually, how did Lightning [=McQueen=] manage to get homologated at all? He's clearly not based on a production car model, even as a silhouette version.

** There was a Dinoco gas station in the first ''WesternAnimation/ToyStory'' (that was where Buzz Lightyear beat up Woody, and caused both of them to get separated from Andy). I would assume their logo is a reference to the [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sinclair_Oil_Corporation Sinclair]] company.
* Towards the end, Chuck blows one of Lightning's tires and only gets a yellow flag. This is bad enough, Lightning beats the pace car out of the pits. Unless the rules are different in this movie, you're not allowed to overtake the pace car.

** There is also the problem that they set up trial on the ''very next day to his crime''; even if Lightning hadn't joked off about his lawyer, there was no way the guy could have arrived on the same day, especially since the city is not even on the map anymore. And they basically tossed Mater, who is obviously not a lawyer, and the prosecutor, Sally, who was a high-class lawyer, blatantly sabotaging all, if any chance McQueen had of defending or even explaining himself, and he HAD a good defense("I was left stranded on the highway and took the wrong turn, this cop started ''shooting at me'' and I panicked, it was an accident!"; sure, the Sheriff DIDN'T actually shoot at McQueen, but it would be clear it was his engine making the noise and scaring McQueen, and he wouldn't look like some delinquent who destroyed the street ForTheEvulz). ''And'' the fact the jury is completely biased, since they're all long-time friends and sole inhabitants of the city, rather than random, unbiased people with no personal investment on the case. Hell, [[HangingJudge the judge came into the courtroom crying murder]]! It was, for all intents and purposes, a KangarooCourt, to showcase how [[FishOutOfTemporalWater backwater]] and [[CloudCuckooLander slightly off their rocks]] Radiator Springs really is. But what bothers me more is how Sally and Doc ignore a big opportunity to make the town popular again by forcing Lightning to make public monetary and marketing reparations instead of, you know, simply making him pave the road ForTheLulz. The rest of the town is too isolated to think of it, but Doc and Sally are more modernized. They could have made any number of deals with Lightning, but instead they preferred to troll him.

** Tomatoes are great for throwing at JerkAss winners, as Chick found out at the end of the first movie.
** This troper always assumed he was referring to his company, which IIRC is named "Tow Mater."

** "The King" is likely a nickname, and thus how he's known to the rest of the world, so that's what people call him, especially big fans like Lightning.

*** Well, toy-lines and pixar call her Linda Weathers (she is voiced by Richard Petty's wife after all). Sounds good enough to me.

*** Actually, this troper always heard it as "''They'' fixed their neon", implying that [=McQueen=] just gave them the idea and/or helped a bit.
* How Does Chick get away with being such a vicious driver? After all, deliberately causing wrecks is a serious offense in normal racing where cars are not sentient living beings. In the Cars universe, it could easily fall under the heading of attempted murder. Given that he is shown as deliberately causing wrecks all the time, he's probably totaled numerous cars over the course of his career, which is probably the in-universe equivalent of murder. He even gets away clean for a blatant attempt to outright murder The King in the final race, which should have gotten him disqualified at the very least.

* I just noticed, before the final race, When Chick is flashing his little metallic C in Lightning's face, '''why is the reflected C not backwards?!'''

*** But, it's kind of implied most of the tourists are there as a stop before a larger destination (presumably, if people went there to go there, the building of the interstate wouldn't have mattered). They don't have a choice; the road leads to their destination, they either use it or don't reach the destination. And large chunks of the plot hinge on there not being many tourists to begin with ("Travelers? What travelers?"). And the two we do see during the days this film takes place over don't even mention the road. And it's not like they can't get the thing repaired without him there; let him go and make him pay the expenses to get it professionally rebuilt (it's heavily implied he has the money), it'd probably take less time than making one guy who has no idea what he's doing do it.
** While it's true that no one visits Radiator Springs just to visit it, they wouldn't be as likely to stop there and shop, sightsee, or stay the night if the road was in such dilapidated condition. Yes, the people driving on Route 66 ''have'' to drive through town to reach their destination, but they ''don't'' have to actually ''stop'' there unless they want to. And while they could've just let McQueen go under the instructions of sending the money/personnel to fix the road in his stead, they had no idea what he would've followed through...and knowing McQueen, he probably ''wouldn't'' have. And where does that leave them? Well, now they have a busted-up road in a dingy little town, and their only means of getting the right person to pay for it is by going after a famous racecar with no proof that he'd even been there, on top of having to find a judge who would care that much about the town.