Cars was Pixar’s seventh feature-length film.
Before Cars, Pixar had released Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, and The Incredibles. Cars followed The Incredibles and expanded Pixar’s storytelling into a world where vehicles are the characters and humans are absent.
The film’s production drew on research into American car culture, NASCAR, classic automobiles, and Route 66. Its setting in Radiator Springs allowed Pixar to combine a sports story with a small-town road movie.
Cars was released in 2006 and became the basis for a large merchandising and licensing business. It was followed by Cars 2 in 2011 and Cars 3 in 2017. The numbering can be confused with the Cars franchise entries themselves, but the question concerns Pixar’s overall feature-film release order, not the sequel number.