In Pixar’s Cars, what type of race is the Piston Cup?

In Pixar’s Cars, the Piston Cup is a stock car racing championship.

The film’s racing world is modeled largely on American stock car racing, especially NASCAR. Lightning McQueen competes in the Piston Cup season against other purpose-built race cars, including Strip Weathers, known as The King, and Chick Hicks.

Stock cars are racing vehicles based visually and mechanically on production cars, although modern competition cars are heavily specialized. This differs from Formula racing, where open-wheel cars compete on road courses and dedicated circuits. Cars also mixes fictional racing with a road-trip story, so the Piston Cup is a made-up championship rather than a real NASCAR trophy.

The film’s racing scenes use familiar stock-car elements such as oval-track competition, pit stops, drafting, sponsorship liveries and a championship points battle.