U.S. Route 66 inspired Pixar’s fictional town of Radiator Springs in Cars.
The film’s creators researched Route 66 during a road trip across the United States. They drew on the highway’s roadside businesses, desert scenery, service stations, motels, and communities that lost traffic after the construction of Interstate 40.
Radiator Springs is presented as a once-busy stop that was bypassed by a newer freeway. That history explains why the town’s population and businesses declined before Lightning McQueen arrives. The setting is fictional, but its economic story reflects real Route 66 communities.
U.S. Route 66 ran from Chicago to Santa Monica and became an important symbol of American road travel. Cars uses that cultural history as more than scenery: the town’s restoration becomes part of the film’s emotional resolution.