Six Pixar feature films had been released before Cars, making Cars the studio's seventh feature.
Pixar's first six theatrical features were Toy Story, A Bug's Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, and The Incredibles. Cars followed The Incredibles and premiered in 2006, continuing Pixar's rapid expansion of computer-animated storytelling.
The film was also the final Pixar feature released during the period when Steve Jobs was the company's chief executive. It arrived after Pixar had established major critical and commercial successes with both original stories and the Toy Story series.
Counting Pixar films can become confusing when short films, television productions, and films distributed by Disney are included. The number here refers specifically to Pixar's theatrical feature-film sequence, in which Cars is number seven.