Route 66 inspires the setting of Radiator Springs in Pixar’s Cars.
The town is fictional, but its design draws heavily on communities and landmarks along the historic U.S. Route 66. The highway once connected Chicago and Santa Monica across the United States and became strongly associated with road trips, roadside businesses, and changing American transportation.
Pixar artists and filmmakers researched Route 66 locations while developing the movie. The film presents Radiator Springs as a once-thriving roadside town bypassed by a newer interstate highway, reflecting the real economic effects that bypasses had on many communities.
The setting also incorporates visual references to places such as the Cadillac Ranch and the landscape of the American Southwest. Route 66 is often called the “Mother Road,” a nickname popularized by John Steinbeck’s 1939 novel The Grapes of Wrath.