Cars is Pixar’s seventh feature-length animated movie. It followed Toy Story, A Bug’s Life, Toy Story 2, Monsters, Inc., Finding Nemo, and The Incredibles.
Released in 2006, Cars expanded Pixar’s storytelling into a world populated entirely by vehicles. Its setting allowed the studio to explore racing, travel, small-town identity, and the consequences of rapid technological and economic change.
The film’s position in Pixar’s release history is sometimes confused with its franchise order. Cars was the first Cars feature, but it was not Pixar’s first film; Toy Story opened the studio’s feature-film history in 1995. Cars 2 and Cars 3 later continued the story.