Route 66 was the working title of Pixar’s Cars before the film received its final title.
The early title reflected the project’s strong connection to the historic U.S. highway. Pixar’s filmmakers researched Route 66 and used its roadside landscapes, abandoned businesses, and changing traffic patterns as inspiration for Radiator Springs and the film’s themes.
The final title, Cars, is much shorter and more direct, identifying the film’s central vehicle characters and its broader world of automobile communities. It also avoids limiting the story to one real highway, since the finished film uses Route 66 as inspiration rather than presenting a documentary account of the road.
Cars ultimately premiered in 2006. Its fictional setting, character names, and Piston Cup events are invented, even though many visual and historical details draw from real American road culture.