In Pixar’s Cars, which desert route is Radiator Springs located along?

In Pixar’s Cars, Radiator Springs is located along U.S. Route 66.

The film presents the town as a once-thriving stop on the historic highway across the American Southwest. Route 66 connected Chicago and Santa Monica after its creation in 1926 and became famous for roadside businesses, motels, service stations, and distinctive desert landscapes. Cars uses that real cultural history as the foundation for Radiator Springs.

The town declines after Interstate 40 diverts travelers away from the old road. Lightning McQueen’s arrival briefly brings attention back to the community, and his decision to remain connected with its residents gives the story its central emotional resolution.

Route 66 is sometimes called the Mother Road, a nickname popularized by John Steinbeck’s 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath. The film’s fictional geography combines references to real Route 66 landmarks and landscapes, but Radiator Springs itself is not an actual town. Ornament Valley is the surrounding fictional region.