“Our Town” is the Randy Newman song nominated for an Oscar from Pixar’s Cars. The song plays over the film’s closing credits and reflects on the changing fortunes of Radiator Springs.
Newman wrote and performed the song for the 2006 film. Its lyrics focus on memory, decline, and the way a once-busy town can be overlooked as transportation patterns change. Those ideas mirror the film’s setting, where Radiator Springs has been bypassed by a newer highway and is struggling to survive.
“Our Town” received an Academy Award nomination for Best Original Song at the 79th Academy Awards. It did not win; the award went to “I Need to Wake Up” from An Inconvenient Truth. Cars also features other well-known songs, including “Life Is a Highway,” but that track was recorded by Rascal Flatts and is not the Oscar-nominated Newman song.