Cars 3

Did You Know?

• The film's soundtrack features an original song 'Run That Race' written and performed by Dan Auerbach.
• A tie-in video game was developed by Avalanche Software and published by Warner Bros. Interactive Entertainment.
• The film was accompanied by the Pixar short film Lou.

Plot

Lightning McQueen, a seven-time Piston Cup champion, is overshadowed by Jackson Storm, an arrogant rookie who leads a new generation of technologically advanced race cars. As Storm wins throughout the season, many veterans retire or are replaced. In the final race at Los Angeles, Lightning briefly leads but loses control and suffers a massive rollover crash, ending his worst season as Storm wins the Piston Cup. Four months later, Lightning recovers and decides to continue racing.

His sponsors Rusty and Dusty have sold Rust-eze to a wealthy business car named Sterling, who assigns Lightning to train at the Rust-eze Racing Center under Cruz Ramirez. Lightning struggles with modern training methods and accidentally damages a simulator. Sterling tries to force him to retire, but Lightning offers a deal: if he wins the Florida 500, he can decide his future; otherwise, he will retire. Sterling accepts on the condition that Cruz trains him.

Frustrated by Cruz's unconventional methods and lack of racing experience, Lightning takes her to Fireball Beach and later to Thunder Hollow, where they are forced into a demolition derby called the Crazy Eight. Cruz wins the derby but accidentally reveals Lightning to the public. Lightning angrily yells at Cruz and breaks her trophy. Cruz reveals she always wanted to be a racer because of Lightning but lacked confidence, and she resigns.

Ashamed, Lightning calls Mater for advice, who suggests he find Doc Hudson's former mentor Smokey in Thomasville, Georgia.

Voice cast

Owen Wilson voices Lightning McQueen. Cristela Alonzo voices Cruz Ramirez, McQueen's trainer at the Rust-Eze Racing Center who aspires to be a racer. Chris Cooper voices Smokey, Doc Hudson's old crew chief. Armie Hammer voices Jackson Storm, a next-generation race car and McQueen's rival.

Larry the Cable Guy voices Tow Mater. Bonnie Hunt voices Sally Carrera. Nathan Fillion voices Sterling, the new owner of Rust-Eze. Lea DeLaria voices Miss Fritter, an eccentric school bus who competes in demolition derbies at Thunder Hollow.

Kerry Washington voices Natalie Certain, a statistical analyst. Reprising roles from previous Cars media are Tony Shalhoub as Luigi, Guido Quaroni as Guido, John Ratzenberger as Mack, Lloyd Sherr as Fillmore, Cheech Marin as Ramone, Paul Dooley as Sarge, Jenifer Lewis as Flo, Katherine Helmond as Lizzie, and Michael Wallis as Sheriff. Jerome Ranft replaces his late brother Joe Ranft as Red. Ray Magliozzi reprises his role as Dusty Rust-eze, while his brother Tom appears as Rusty Rust-eze through unused audio recordings from the first film and Car Talk.

Paul Newman posthumously appears as Doc Hudson through archived audio recordings. Margo Martindale, Isiah Whitlock Jr., and Junior Johnson voice Doc Hudson's old racing friends. Madeleine McGraw voices Maddy McGear. Andra Day voices Sweet Tea. Bob Peterson replaces Michael Keaton as Chick Hicks and also voices Dr. Damage.

Production

Development on Cars 3 began in late 2011 after the release of Cars 2, and pre-production was underway by March 2014. In October 2014, Pixar's then-chief creative officer John Lasseter revealed at the Tokyo International Film Festival that the film would include a tribute to Hayao Miyazaki's The Castle of Cagliostro in the form of an old Citroën 2CV. Lasseter stated the film would have a very emotional story similar in tone to the first film. Co-writer Kiel Murray said the team wanted to return to McQueen's story after the second film focused on Mater.

Director Brian Fee said the production team researched NASCAR racers and consulted a sports psychoanalyst, who noted that many drivers cannot imagine doing anything else. Mike Rich compared McQueen to athletes like Wayne Gretzky and Misty May-Treanor. Fee said being a parent helped him understand the film's emotion. Story supervisor Scott Morse wanted to highlight the emotional core and McQueen's relationship with Doc Hudson.

The production used a new rendering system called Rix Integration Subsystem (RIS), previously used in Finding Dory. New cast members Armie Hammer and Cristela Alonzo were announced in January 2017, followed by Nathan Fillion, Kerry Washington, and Lea DeLaria two months later. Randy Newman, who composed the first film's score, composed the score for Cars 3.

Reception

Cars 3 brought in $152.9 million domestically and $231 million internationally, totaling $383.9 million worldwide against a $175 million budget. During its opening weekend in North America, it was expected to earn between $55 and $60 million across 4,256 theaters. It collected $2.8 million from Thursday night previews and $19.5 million on its first day, ultimately opening to $53.7 million and taking the top spot, pushing Wonder Woman out of first place after two weeks.

This was the smallest opening in the Cars series, though it marked the 16th Pixar film to debut at number one. The following weekend, it earned $24.1 million and fell to third, behind Transformers: The Last Knight and Wonder Woman. By its third weekend, it made $9.7 million ($14.1 million over the five-day July 4 holiday period) and dropped to fifth. CinemaScore audiences gave it an average grade of A. Critics highlighted the animation, story, and emotional weight, seeing it as a step up from the previous film.

Owen Gleiberman of Variety described it as a friendly and lively movie. David Fear of Rolling Stone praised its emotional depth regarding aging and passing the torch. Mike Ryan of Uproxx called it the Rocky III of the franchise.