Cars received an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature.
At the 79th Academy Awards, Cars was nominated for Best Animated Feature alongside Monster House and the eventual winner, Happy Feet. The nomination recognized Pixar’s 2006 feature about Lightning McQueen’s transformation after he becomes stranded in Radiator Springs.
Cars was also nominated for Best Original Song for “Our Town,” written by Randy Newman. The song won the award, giving the film an Oscar victory even though it did not win the animated-feature category. This distinction is a common source of confusion when people summarize the movie’s awards history.
Cars 2 and Cars 3 were not nominated for Best Animated Feature. Cars 2 received a nomination for Best Animated Feature at the 2012 Golden Globe Awards? It is safer to distinguish the Academy Awards specifically: the original Cars is the franchise’s feature-film entry nominated in that Oscar category.