YMMV / Cars on the Road

• Awesome Music: The main title theme by Bobby Hamrick is an upbeat and energetic bluegrass theme that perfectly captures the fun and breezy atmosphere of the show.
• Critical Dissonance: The series would receive some of the best scores in the franchise by critics, while fans and audiences were more lukewarm and divisive on the show. On Rotten Tomatoes, the show has achieved a 92% critics score, while the audience score is still positive but noticeably lower 78%, which is roughly on par with the first Cars movie (but still lower than it by one number).
• Fan-Disliked Explanation: Previously, the franchise had implied that in-universe history progressed similarly to real-life history, with car technology and designs advancing concurrently; the franchise deliberately left history before the invention of cars extremely ambiguous. This series states that there was a car version of the dinosaurs and the Stone Age.
• Fanon Discontinuity: A lot of fans do not accept this series as canon, due to how different the style and tone is from the films.
  • While previous Cars media was usually grounded in reality (for a world of Sentient Vehicles), this series features things such as paranormal activity, out-of-body experiences, and a Disney Acid Sequence, all of which fans view as being too wacky and out-of-place in the franchise.
  • The fact that Mater can compete against salt flat racers just by attaching a pair of rocket engines (as if aerodynamics are completely irrelevant) contradicts the main theme of Cars 3, where Lightning couldn't race faster than Jackson Storm no matter what he did. To be fair, Mater had very little control with his new modifications, so it’s likely Lightning would have an even harder time getting used to racing in a new body, especially if he wants to beat the best Next-Gen racer.
• Franchise Original Sin: As aforementioned, this series has gotten flak from fans for its Denser and Wackier tone compared to the Cars films. That said, this is not the first time the franchise has dipped its toes into out there wackiness, as the Mater's Tall Tales shorts were also very wacky and out there compared to the films. However, fans were more okay with the sillier tone in those shorts because they were non-canon and had the framing device of being made up tall tales by Mater (it's in the name after all). This show, however, is meant to be a canon follow-up to Cars 3, with everything happening being real, which makes the sillier tone harder to swallow for some by comparison.
• Surprisingly Improved Sequel: While Cars 3 was already considered to be a step up from the previous films, this show has managed to blow that out of the water and get some of the best scores the Cars franchise has ever gotten up to it (on Rotten Tomatoes, the show has achieved a 92% critic score, which is higher than all of the previous Cars films).
• Visual Effects of Awesome: Despite just being a show, the animation is right on par with the feature-length movies.

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