Cars was Pixar's seventh feature film at its 2006 release.
Before Cars, Pixar released Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, and The Incredibles. Cars followed those six films and expanded Pixar's subject matter into racing, road travel, and automotive culture.
The film was also the final Pixar feature distributed by Disney before the companies' acquisition agreement became fully reflected in later releases. Its production combined computer animation with research into real cars, roads, racing, and American roadside architecture.
The numbering refers to Pixar's feature films, not the Cars franchise. Cars 2 and Cars 3 were Pixar's twelfth and eighteenth feature films respectively, so the series installments have different positions in the studio's overall filmography.