Pixar’s Cars is strongly associated with Route 66.
The fictional town of Radiator Springs sits on a forgotten road in the American Southwest, and the film’s setting reflects the history of U.S. Route 66. Once a major east-west highway, Route 66 connected Chicago and Santa Monica and became famous for motels, diners, gas stations, and other roadside businesses.
Cars uses the road’s decline after the construction of faster interstate highways as part of its emotional background. Radiator Springs loses traffic when a new bypass allows travelers to avoid the town. That premise mirrors the experience of many real communities whose economies suffered when through traffic moved elsewhere.
Pixar artists and filmmakers researched Route 66 locations during development. Real landmarks and landscapes influenced the film’s visual world, although Radiator Springs itself is fictional. The result is not a literal map of the highway, but a stylized tribute to its communities and changing role in American travel.