History WesternAnimation / Cars1

** During the CreditsMontage, Mack (voiced by John Ratzenberger) is watching ''Cars''-universe versions of Pixar movies (including ''[[WesternAnimation/ToyStory1 Toy Car Story]]'', ''[[WesternAnimation/MonstersInc Monster Trucks, Inc.]]'', and ''WesternAnimation/ABugsLife''), and initially praises the voice actor for Hamm Truck and the Abominable Snowplow [[ButHeSoundsHandsome (John Ratzenberger)]] ... but by the time ''WesternAnimation/ABugsLife'' rolls around, he [[LampshadeHanging realizes they're just reusing the same voice actor]] and [[SelfDeprecation criticizes them for it]].

* AdaptationalContextChange: Due to humans being completely nonexistent in the ''Cars'' world, the ''WesternAnimation/MonstersInc'' scene where Mike and Sulley get banished to the Himalayas is changed so instead of Mike being angry about them being banished to the human world, it's about him being angry that they're stuck in the snow... without snow chains.

** During the end credits, Mack watches several car versions of previous Pixar films at a drive-in theater, specifically ''[[WesternAnimation/ToyStory1 Toy Car Story]]'', ''[[WesternAnimation/MonstersInc Monster Trucks, Inc.]]'', and ''WesternAnimation/ABugsLife''.

* DifferentWorldDifferentMovies: The automotive versions of earlier Pixar movies appear in the end credits, including ''[[WesternAnimation/MonstersInc Monster Trucks, Inc.]]'', ''[[WesternAnimation/ToyStory1 Toy Car Story]]'', and ''[[WesternAnimation/ABugsLife A]] [[StealthPun Bug's]] [[WesternAnimation/ABugsLife Life]]'' mostly to set up a joke on how they share John Ratzenberger as a voice actor.

* ArtisticLicenseSports: The racing here is most loosely based on NASCAR, and artistic license abounds.
** The plot is kicked off by a three-way tie which results in a tiebreaker race scheduled for a week later. Prior to the introduction of the playoff format in 2014, if two drivers tied for the points lead at the final race, such a tiebreaker would be broken by number of total race wins then total number of top-5 and top-10 finishes.[[labelnote:Example]]In 2011, when Tony Stewart won his third Cup championship, he and Carl Edwards tied for the Sprint Cup points lead at the Homestead-Miami season finale. While they had the same number of points, the championship was rewarded to Stewart because he had won five races, while Edwards only had one. This also happened for the runners-up in the final points for 2005 (incidentally Stewart's second Cup championship), where Edwards and Greg Biffle tied for second, with Biffle being ranked higher due to more wins[[/labelnote]]
** Most notable is the fact that rather severe wrecks happen and the races just keep going, when a real organization would immediately throw a caution flag, if not a red flag.[[note]]Though NASCAR has been noted to exercise lots of discretion with caution flags, so it isn't uncommon to see crashes happen on the last lap where no caution was thrown. Or single car spins where a caution isn't thrown if the car is able to refire and drive back to pit road.[[/note]]
** NASCAR's contact rules are practically non-existent in the Piston Cup; bear in mind that circuit racers are zipping around those ovals in excess speeds of 100-200mph, and the tiniest bump can put the drivers at lethal risk. Even accidental contact is looked down upon, with the very ''least'' resulting in the bumped driver being pissed at you, and at the worst you can get penalized, especially if you are found at fault for a pileup. Not to mention that any driver that deliberately rams other cars and purposefully triggers a crash the way Chick did would be [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racing_flags#Black_flag parked]] and potentially given a suspension after the race (see incidents with [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pe7YunsEg2M&pp=ygUba2Vuc2V0aCBsb2dhbm8gbWFydGluc3ZpbGxl Matt Kenseth]] and [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MDZ_xwJR6b4&pp=ygUVYnVzY2ggd3JlY2tzIGhvcm5hZGF5 Kyle Busch]] as demonstrations).
** The field is shown being filled with stock cars from various different eras, right down to the three main racers who get focus: The King is Richard Petty's 1970 Plymouth Superbird, Chick Hicks is a 1979 Pontiac Ventura, and Lightning is a cross of cars from several different types of auto racing.[[note]]The only exception in real life is the ARCA Menards Series (both the national series and the East and West regional series). Even then, it's not as extreme as ''Cars'', as they can only use either the older Generation 4 bodies (mostly from the last five years of their usage) or the current, Generation 6-styled (specifically the 2013–14 Gen 6 cars) composite bodies made by Five Star Race Car Bodies; and said Gen 4 bodies are mostly used by underfunded teams or teams that did not run the full season since all cars are required to be equal.[[/note]]
*** Interestingly, Lightning [=McQueen=] is both an exception and the embodiment of this -- being one of the few (if not only) characters not modeled after a real car. His base design is from a NASCAR Gen-4 stock car, with features of the more curvaceous Le Mans endurance racers, and a bit of Lola and Ford ([=GT40=]) influence. However, considering these cars are from 3–4 different distinct types of racing, such a car would never be suitable for any of these leagues.[[note]]His front profile is ''way'' too wide to be useful as a stock car, which is more or less straight-line racing on wide, flat tracks and inclined turns meaning you want as small a profile as possible to for the best aerodynamics; not to mention it would make any attempt to draft useless since he would be wider than almost every other racer on the track, negating any advantage the low pressure zone bought him. At the same time, his chassis is too much ''like'' a stock car to be useful on a Le Mans circuit, with a back spoiler too small and a mass too big to allow him to keep traction on sharp turns. Interestingly, in ''Cars 2'' this somewhat is played more realistically, where Lightning is unable to keep up with the more specialized F1 and Le Mans racers on the circuit, but is able to excel on dirt track portions thanks to his teachings from Doc and the fact that aerodynamics play less of a role at lower speeds.[[/note]]
** The fact that in this universe the cars are the athletes is a fairly decent [[HandWave Tire Wave]] for why the rules wouldn't be exactly the same, but whether the rules make more or less sense because of such a setting is best not thought about too hard.
** After Doc Hudson recovered from a season ending injury, when he went back expecting he could race again, the sponsors told him he was history. As ''WebVideo/CinemaSins'' pointed out in their sins video, it's incredibly unlikely that an athlete in his prime would be completely ignored because of a season ending injury and that most would at least participate in their sport in one way or another. Especially when you consider just how many retired NASCAR drivers remain very much active in the sport in a supporting capacity, whether that be as a team owner (Dale Earnhardt, Sr. and Jr., UsefulNotes/RichardPetty, and Richard Childress come to mind), or broadcasters (Darrell Waltrip, Dale Jr., Jeff Burton, Jeff Gordon, Kyle Petty, Regan Smith, Clint Bowyer, Kevin Harvick, etc.), or, hell, [[spoiler:Lightning's decision to become Cruz's racing coach at the end of ''Cars 3'']].
** Lightning [=McQueen=] is being identified as the first rookie to ever win the Piston Cup, however, when Doc Hudson's trophies were discovered they are engraved "1951, 1952, 1953". Doc's license plate identifies him as a 1951. That would have made him a rookie when he won his 1951 Piston Cup. However, since most car models are released about six months ''before'' their model year (examples are the Chevrolet Lumina and the current Ford Fusion and Toyota Camry models), it is plausible that Doc was a rookie in 1950 with enough starts to not be classified as one in 1951.[[note]]In NASCAR, rookies must attempt seven or fewer events in the season of their first attempt for them to retain rookie classification the next season. Since 2011, you also have to declare eligibility for points in the series you raced in to be able to run for Rookie of the Year. If you're ineligible for points as a rookie, you're still eligible for rookie classification when you finally decide to declare eligibility for points as long as you don't run too many races beforehand (the limit is around 50–60 races, as Trevor Bayne experienced in 2015 when he was declared ineligible for rookie classification in the Sprint Cup Series having run a total of 52 races in the previous five seasons with Wood Brothers Racing, including his win at the 2011 Daytona 500.[[/note]]
** On the last lap during the first race, one of Lightning's tires blows; in NASCAR, if there's an accident on the last lap where other cars and/or safety personnel might be at risk, the race is declared immediately over. Therefore, Lightning would've won the race anyway since he was in the lead, though it would've probably been met with controversy akin to Greg Biffle's win at the [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2007_LifeLock_400 2007 Lifelock 400]] in Kansas.
*** Also during the final lap of the tiebreaker race, Chick purposefully makes The King crash in the infield. Since Lightning was way ahead of them, if the caution had been thrown right away, Lightning technically won the Piston Cup anyway since the video evidence would show he was in the lead even before willingly letting Chick cross the finish line. The field would be frozen at the instant of caution, but his efforts to get The King back to the finish line would be unchanged, and in fact would still have as much weight as in the actual film since it would be viewed as rather gentlemanly sportsmanship.

Holds the distinction of being the last Disney film released on [[UsefulNotes/{{VCR}} VHS]], as part of [[https://pixar.fandom.com/wiki/File:Carsvhs.jpg an extremely rare release]] from the Disney Movie Club. Said tape is perhaps one of the most highly sought-after in existence.

* FriendOrIdolDecision: [[spoiler:Lightning [=McQueen=] gives up first place in the Piston Cup race to help The King cross the finish line after Chick Hicks causes him to wreck out. Hicks still wins the cup, but everyone knows that Lightning would have won, and Hicks' dishonorable tactics lose him any regard the win would have brought. In a mild DoubleSubversion and AnAesop, [=McQueen=] gains the adulation he had desired but discovers that he doesn't really need it anymore -- the events of the movie have taught him that there are more important things than fame.]]
* FromNewYorkToNowhere: Non-protagonist example. Sally Carrera recounts her story to Lightning [=McQueen=] that she used to be a fast-track lawyer in Los Angeles but grew disillusioned with the phoniness and the guile. She left California and kept driving through the desert until she broke down in Radiator Springs, where the townsfolk took her in and showed her kindness. She fell in love with the town and became its sole public defender, and has been content with that ever since. Sally recounts this as part of her stop-and-smell-the-roses [[AnAesop Aesop]].

* AnAesop:
** There's a lot more to racing than just winning. It's important to slow down and enjoy life every once in a while.
** Put others before yourself.

* ForWantOfANail: The film basically happens because of Lightning's refusal to change his tires on the final pit stop. In addition, the reason he gets lost is because of DJ, Boost, Wingo and Snot Rod messing with Mack on the highway by luring him onto the side of the road which is dangerously bumpy, and it causes one of Lightning's bobbleheads to fall off a shelf and hit the switch which opens the trailer.

** The King is UsefulNotes/RichardPetty voicing his 1970 Plymouth Superbird, even bearing the same font for the #43 as Richard Petty Motorsports has used ever since in the Cup Series. He has also won seven Piston Cup championships, the number of Winston Cup Championships that Petty won in his racing career. And his wreck at the end of the film is a nod back to Petty's wreck in the 1988 Daytona 500.

** NASCAR on FOX analyst Darrell Waltrip and NBC sports commentator Bob Costas lend their voices to Piston Cup announcers Darrell Cartrip and Bob Cutlass. Waltrip even gets to say "Boogity-boogity-boogity!", the phrase he says at the drop of the green flag of every NASCAR on Fox race.

-->'''Lightning:''' "Oh, like ''you''? You've been here how long, and your friends don't even know who you are? Who's caring about only himself?!"

** The plot is kicked off by a three-way tie which results in a tiebreaker race scheduled for a week later. Prior to the introduction of the playoff format in 2014, if two drivers tied for the points lead at the final race, such a tiebreaker would be broken by number of total race wins then total number of top-5 and top-10 finishes.[[labelnote:Example]]In 2011, Carl Edwards and Tony Stewart tied for the Sprint points lead at the Homestead-Miami season finale. While they had the same number of points, the championship went to Stewart because he had won five races, while Edwards only had one. This also happened for the runners-up in the final points for 2005, where Edwards and Greg Biffle tied for second, with Biffle being ranked higher due to more wins[[/labelnote]]

** NASCAR's contact rules are practically non-existent in the Piston Cup; bear in mind that circuit racers are zipping around those ovals in excess speeds of 100-200mph, and the tiniest bump can put the drivers at lethal risk. Even accidental contact is looked down upon, with the very ''least'' resulting in the bumped driver being pissed at you, and at the worst you can get penalized, especially if you are found at fault for a pileup. Not to mention that any driver that deliberately rams other cars and purposefully triggers a crash the way Chick did would be [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racing_flags#Black_flag parked]] and potentially given a suspension after the race (see Matt Kenseth and Kyle Busch as demonstrations).

*** Interestingly, Lightning [=McQueen=] is both an exception and the embodiment of this -- being one of the few (if not only) characters not modeled after a real car. His base design is from a NASCAR Gen-4 stock car, with features of the more curvaceous Le Mans endurance racers, and a bit of Lola and Ford ([=GT40=]) influence. However, considering these cars are from 3–4 different distinct types of racing, such a car would never be suitable for any of these leagues.[[note]]His front profile is ''way'' too wide to be useful as a stock car, which is more or less straight-line racing on wide, flat tracks and inclined turns meaning you want as small a profile as possible to for the best aerodynamics; not to mention it would make any attempt to draft useless since he would be wider than almost every other racer on the track, negating any advantage the low pressure zone bought him. At the same time, his chassis is too much ''like'' a stock car to be useful on a Le Mans circuit, with a back spoiler too small and a mass too big to allow him to keep traction on sharp turns; Interestingly, in ''Cars 2'' this somewhat is played more realistically, where Lightning is unable to keep up with the more specialized F1 and Le Mans racers on the circuit, but is able to excel on dirt track portions thanks to his teachings from Doc and the fact that aerodynamics play less of a role at lower speeds.[[/note]]

** After Doc Hudson recovered from a season ending injury, when he went back expecting he could race again, the sponsors told him he was history. As ''WebVideo/CinemaSins'' pointed out in their sins video, it's incredibly unlikely that an athlete in his prime would be completely ignored because of a season ending injury and that most would at least participate in their sport in one way or another. Especially when you consider just how many retired NASCAR drivers remain very much active in the sport in a supporting capacity, whether that be as a team owner (Dale Earnhardt, Sr. and Jr., UsefulNotes/RichardPetty, and Richard Childress come to mind), or broadcasters (Darrell Waltrip, Dale Jr., Jeff Burton, Jeff Gordon, Kyle Petty, Regan Smith, Clint Bowyer, etc.), or, hell, [[spoiler:Lightning's decision to become Cruz's racing coach at the end of ''Cars 3'']].

** The Motor Speedway of the South is clearly Bristol Motor Speedway, right down to the logos. However, unlike Bristol, the track is a bit larger than the real one and has room for a grassy infield.
** Los Angeles International Speedway is meant to be the Auto Club Speedway, but with the outer facade of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, and interior architecture from the Rose Bowl.[[note]]Nearly 16 years later, the LA Coliseum would eventually become the location of a NASCAR race, the 2022 Clash held on February 6 of that year, prior to the running of the Daytona 500.[[/note]]

** NASCAR's contact rules are practically non-existent in the Piston Cup; bear in mind that circuit racers are zipping around those ovals in excess speeds of 100-200mph, and the tiniest bump can put the drivers at lethal risk. Even accidental contact is looked down upon, with the very ''least'' resulting in the bumped driver being pissed at you, and at the worst you can get penalized, especially if you are found at fault for a pileup. Not to mention that any driver that deliberately rams other cars and purposefully triggers a crash the way Chick did would be [[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Racing_flags#Black_flag parked]] (see Matt Kenseth and Kyle Busch as demonstrations).

*** While trying to fix the road, Bessie spits some tar on his right lightning bolt sticker which he has for most of his stay. This symbolizes that his ego has become slightly "darkened".

** There are a few unnoticeable hints at Lightning's HeelFaceTurn throughout the film:

* HeelFaceTurn: Used and hinted at with Lightning throughout the film, in spite of his "designated hero" status. Examples:

The first film for the ''Franchise/{{Cars}}'' film series (2006) centers around Lightning [=McQueen=] (voiced by Creator/OwenWilson), an arrogant up-and-coming hotshot stock car racer whose only [[StealthPun driving]] concern is winning. The film opens with [=McQueen=] vying for the Piston Cup, a coveted prize which assures the winner of a lucrative sponsorship. Despite a [[StealthPun valiant]] effort, [=McQueen=] ends up in a three-way tie with retiring racing veteran [[InkSuitActor Strip "The King" Weathers]] and perennial runner-up Chick Hicks. A tie-breaking race is scheduled a week later in California, and [=McQueen=] urges his driver Mack to get them there immediately.

'''Lightning:''' This grumpy old racecar I know once told me something; ''it's just an empty cup.''

* KarmicDeath: Done figuratively. [[spoiler:In the end, Chick Hicks wins the Piston Cup, but in doing so his [[ClassicVillain Pride, Wrath, and Ambition]] have revealed him to be a poor sport to the rest of the world. His career dies a metaphoric -- yet ''very'' karmic -- death as a result]].

** After Mater's demonstration of driving backwards, Lightning sarcastically remarks that he may use it in his big race. He does, after Chick rams him and he ends up facing backwards. He simply reverses past him. He also uses it in the final lap, as he reverses out of the way of Chick trying to ram him again, and Chick hits the wall instead.

-->'''Boost:''' Oh no, Snot Rod!\\

Along the way, [=McQueen=] gets lost, ending up in Radiator Springs, a quiet rural town in a forgotten segment of Route 66. After accidentally tearing up the town's main road, [=McQueen=] is sentenced to repairing it as community service. As he toils to finish his service and get to California, [=McQueen=] makes friends with the locals, including Tow Mater, former big-city hotshot Sally Carrera, and racing legend of yesteryear Doc Hudson (voiced by Creator/PaulNewman in his final role before his death two years later), and learns that there's a lot more to life than just racing to the finish line.[[note]]The film's story has often been compared to ''Film/DocHollywood'' (both films are about a successful, cocky man from the big city who gets stuck in a small rural town and becomes a better person by coming to understand how small-town residents live).[[/note]]

Along the way, [=McQueen=] gets lost, ending up in Radiator Springs, a quiet rural town in a forgotten segment of Route 66. After accidentally tearing up the town's main road, [=McQueen=] is sentenced to repairing it as community service. As he toils to finish his service and get to California, [=McQueen=] makes friends with the locals, including Tow Mater, former big-city hotshot Sally Carrera, and racing legend of yesteryear Doc Hudson (voiced by Creator/PaulNewman in his final film role), and learns that there's a lot more to life than just racing to the finish line.[[note]]The film's story has often been compared to ''Film/DocHollywood'' (both films are about a successful, cocky man from the big city who gets stuck in a small rural town and becomes a better person by coming to understand how small-town residents live).[[/note]]

-> '''Lightning [=McQueen=]''': Where am I?\\
'''Mater''': Where are you? Shoot! You're in Radiator Springs. The cutest little town in Carburetor County.

Along the way, [=McQueen=] gets lost, ending up in Radiator Springs, a quiet rural town in a forgotten segment of Route 66. After accidentally tearing up the town's main road, [=McQueen=] is sentenced to repairing it as community service. As he toils to finish his service and get to California, [=McQueen=] makes friends with the locals, including Tow Mater and former big-city hotshot Sally Carrera, and learns that there's a lot more to life than just racing to the finish line.[[note]]The film's story has often been compared to ''Film/DocHollywood'' (both films are about a successful, cocky man from the big city who gets stuck in a small rural town and becomes a better person by coming to understand how small-town residents live).[[/note]]

* FooledByTheSound: When Doc's engine sputters, Lightning believes that Doc is shooting at him.