Stories from the set

Toward the end of the cartoon, you can spot a truck with the Pizza Planet logo.

Dinoco, the sponsor of the Piston Cup, also owned the gas station where Andy's mom stopped in Toy Story (1995).

Initially, the project was titled Route 66. Considering the fact that this title had already been used by filmmakers (in 1960, a series of the same name premiered and ran for 4 seasons), the film received its current concise title.

The music in the opening of the very first commercial (teaser trailer) for the animated film is none other than the title theme from another Pixar studio creation — A Bug's Life.

Another track from the same trailer belongs to the punk rock band Green Day. The song is called "Westbound Sign" from the 1995 album Insomniac.

During work on the animated film, the animators drew 43,000 sketch drawings (sketches) dedicated to various car design options.

The original number of the character named "Lightning McQueen", voiced by Owen Wilson, was 57, symbolizing the birth year of director John Lasseter. Later, it was decided to change the number to "95", the release year of Pixar's first animated film, "Toy Story". The character's name is a tribute to one of the studio's best animators, Glenn McQueen, who passed away in 2002.

Lightning McQueen's tires are made by the fictional Lightyear corporation, by analogy with the world-famous Goodyear brand.

Mia and Tia are modeled after the first generation Mazda MX-5 Miata.

The fictional town of Radiator Springs was created based on real places on Route 66. In 2001, the creative team at Pixar, including John Lasseter and Joe Ranft, drove along some sections of Route 66 in Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico, Arizona, and California. They were accompanied on the trip by Michael Wallis, a Route 66 historian. He voiced the Sheriff in the cartoon.