Route 66 inspired the setting of Radiator Springs in Pixar’s Cars.
Route 66 was one of the original highways of the United States Highway System. Established in 1926, it connected Chicago with Santa Monica and became closely associated with long-distance travel, roadside businesses, and the development of the American West.
Pixar’s creative team researched Route 66 during the making of Cars. The film uses the road’s historic decline after the construction of faster interstate highways as part of Radiator Springs’ background. The town was once busy, but traffic disappeared when Interstate 40 bypassed it.
Radiator Springs is fictional, although its visual style draws from real Route 66 communities and landmarks. The movie’s road-trip structure, abandoned businesses, neon signs, and desert landscapes all reinforce that connection. Route 66 is sometimes called the Mother Road, a nickname popularized by John Steinbeck’s 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath.