Trivia / Cars

• Acting for Two:
  • Mack is voiced by John Ratzenberger, who also reprises three of his previous Pixar roles (Hamm, P.T. Flea, and the Abominable Snowman) during the drive-in theater scene from the end credits.
  • In the Canadian French dub, besides Benoît Rousseau voicing all four John Ratzenberger-voiced characters, there's also Alain Zouvi reprising his roles as both Woody and Mike Wazowski.
• Actor-Inspired Element: Mater's "da'gum!" was an adlib from Larry the Cable Guy.
• Actor-Shared Background:
  • Like Sarge, Paul Dooley was a U.S. Navy veteran.
  • The cameos by real-life NASCAR and Formula One drivers are done by them voicing real cars they've driven in their careers.
    • Dale Earnhardt, Jr. voices the Chevrolet Monte Carlo that he drove at DEI from 1999 to 2007.
    • Mario Andretti voices the 1967 Ford Fairlane in which he won the 1967 Daytona 500.
    • Michael Schumacher voices a Ferrari F430. He won five of his seven F1 drivers' titles with the Ferrari team.
    • Strip "The King" Weathers is voiced by Richard Petty, and shares many characteristics with the driver. (1) Weathers is portrayed as a 1970 Plymouth Superbird, the car that Petty drove at that time. (2) He is painted in Petty's distinctive shade of blue and bears the number 43 that Petty drove for his entire NASCAR career. (3) Weathers won seven Piston Cup titles; the real-life Petty won the same number of Cup Series titles. (4) His crash at the end of the tiebreaker race is very similar to one in which Petty was involved during the 1988 Daytona 500. However, artistic license was taken — the real-life crash involved six cars in all, and was not deliberately caused.
    • The King's wife Lynda, voiced by Richard Petty's real-life wife Lynda, is based on the 1974 Chrysler station wagon that she drove to Richard's races in the 1970s.
    • The German dub has the late Formula 1 legend Niki Lauda voice Strip Weathers.
    • Paul Newman (Doc) was also well-known for his love of racing, winning many sports car and endurance races in the 70's and 80's and being co-owner of several CART teams.
    • The European Spanish dub had Andretti becoming Formula One champion Fernando Alonso and Piston Cup commentator Bob Cutlass voiced by veteran commentator Antonio Lobato.
• Awesome, Dear Boy: Larry the Cable Guy called this film his "big break" and proof that his years of working as a comedian and failing to break into acting had paid off.
• Cast the Expert: The Sheriff is played by Michael Wallis, a renowned journalist and historian who has written several best-selling books on the history of the American Southwest and Route 66, the film's primary settings.
• Celebrity Voice Actor:
  • The European Spanish dub included a hurricane of real life racing drivers and celebrities playing small roles, including Fernando Alonso (replacing Mario Andretti's character), Pedro Martínez de la Rosa (as Boost), Marc Gené (Wingo), Emilio de Villota Sr. and Jr. (Mocarra and DJ), Nani Roma (a crashed car), Dani Sordo (Junior) and Antonio Albacete (Peterbilt), as well as sportscasters Antonio Lobato (Bob Cutlass) and TV hosts Pedro Piqueras, Iñaki Gabilondo, Lorenzo Milá, Roberto Arce and Hilario Pino (as the in-universe TV hosts).
  • Mads Mikkelsen voices Chick Hicks in the Danish dub.
  • Samuel Le Bihan as Chick Hicks in the French dub.
• Creator Couple: The Spanish version included a cameo by Fernando Alonso, who was involved with (and later briefly married to) the singer of El Sueño de Morfeo, the band that performed the Spanish localized version of Brad Paisley's "Find Yourself" in the movie.
• Cultural Translation:
  • In the European Spanish version, Mario Andretti's character As Himself was re-designed to become one for Spanish Formula One champion Fernando Alonso, who voiced the character himself (although the car couldn't receive Alonso's Renault blue colors due to legal conflict, having to become green and white instead). For his part, Bob Cutlass, played by and based on NBC sportscaster Bob Costas, retained its design, but was dubbed by Spanish sportscaster Antonio Lobato in his signature style.
  • In Finland, Andretti became Mika Hakkinen the same way.
• Died During Production: In 2005, Joe Ranft died in a car accident, making this the final Pixar film with Ranft's involvement.
• In Memoriam: This film was dedicated to Joe Ranft, a prominent Pixar animator and voice actor (e.g. Heimlich in A Bug's Life) who died in a car accident in 2005. Corpse Bride was also dedicated to Ranft.
• Inspiration for the Work: John Lasseter said that inspiration for the film's story came after he took a cross-country road trip with his wife and five sons in 2000.
• Kids' Meal Toy: McDonald's released toys of Lighnting, Mater, Sally, Doc, Fillmore, Luigi, Flo, and Ramone in their Happy Meals. Ramone had purple, yellow and green variants, and Lightning also had clean and dirty variants. Also, this promotion was what caused Fillmore to have his name changed. Originally, he was going to be named Waldmire, after Route 66 resident Robert "Bob" Waldmire, but Waldmire, a vegan, didn't want his name to be used because Fillmore was one of the characters to be given a Happy Meal toy.
• Milestone Celebration: The film has a specialized logo for Pixar, due to it being released on their 20th anniversary.
• The Other Darrin: In the Canadian French dub, the Abominable Snowman is the only character from a previous Pixar movie to not be voiced by his original voice actor during the end credits. In the dub for Monsters, Inc., he was voiced by Daniel Picard (who is also the voice of Chick Hicks in Cars). Here, he's instead voiced by Benoît Rousseau. This change was done to preserve the joke of Mack sharing his voice actor with three other Pixar characters, as Rousseau also voiced Hamm and P.T. Flea in their respective movies.
• Promoted Fanboy: John Lasseter hired Larry the Cable Guy without even needing to see him audition and gave him lots of leeway to ad lib because he was already a huge fan of his stand up.
• Reality Subtext:
  • The King's crash is based, frame by frame, on an actual crash Richard Petty lived through in the Daytona 500. Though the real crash involved Petty and at least six other cars.
  • Doc Hudson is largely based on 2-time NASCAR champion Herb Thomas, who, in fact, won his two titles in a Hudson Hornet. While there are minor differences between the two, namely their ultimate fates, Doc Hudson is essentially Thomas in car form.
  • The Motor Speedway of the South is loosely modeled off of Charlotte Motor Speedway in North Carolina, where the movie was premiered, and bits are based on "Thunder Valley" - Bristol Motor Speedway. The California speedway where the finale happens does not exist, but it is possibly a substitute for Fontana's Auto Club Speedway.
  • In terms involving The Yellow Car draft of the film, Jorgen Klubien states that the idea was partially based around the poor reception his fellow countrymen gave the Mini-El car around that time the draft was made.
• Role Reprise: The credits scene involving Cars-universe versions of Pixar movies features several reprises:
  • Toy Story: Tom Hanks as Woody, Tim Allen as Buzz Lightyear, and John Ratzenberger as Hamm.
  • A Bug's Life: Dave Foley as Flik and John Ratzenberger as P.T. Flea.
  • Monsters, Inc.: John Goodman as Sulley, Billy Crystal as Mike, and John Ratzenberger as the Abominable Snowman.
• Technology Marches On: In 2006, GPS in vehicles were increasing in popularity, but they were still considered by most to be something of a new and niche luxury. Hence why Van's use of GPS instead of a map is presented as unreliable.
• Throw It In!: Many of Mater's catch phrases, such as his trademark "dag'gum!", were ad libs from Larry the Cable Guy.
• What Could Have Been: Shares a page with the rest of the franchise.
• Working Title: Aside from the title being The Yellow Car which was the first name for the movie back in 1997, The film according to the 2002 draft had the place holder name The American Car In 2001, the film's working title was Route 66 (after U.S. Route 66), but the title was changed to Cars in order to avoid confusion with the 1960s television series of the same name.
• Write What You Know: Aside from his passionate love of automobiles (his father owned a car dealership, which he worked at during the summer as a teenager), the moral of slowing down and appreciating the important things in life came from John Lasseter taking time to go on a vacation with his family down the real Route 66 after spending four years making A Bug's Life and saving Toy Story 2 from Sequelitis status with no break in-between. The juxtaposition of the workaholism and the wife and children he loved gave him his own lesson in "slowing down."
• This was the final film independently produced by Pixar before their 2006 merger with Disney, although this film was released after that merger.

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