Route 66 inspired the setting and road-trip atmosphere of Pixar’s Cars.
The historic U.S. highway connected Chicago and Los Angeles and became famous through migration, tourism, roadside businesses, and popular culture. In Cars, the fictional town of Radiator Springs sits beside the old road and has lost visitors after a modern interstate bypass diverts traffic away from it.
That premise reflects a real pattern along sections of Route 66, where towns and businesses declined when newer highways redirected motorists. Pixar’s filmmakers traveled along the route while researching the film, gathering visual and cultural details for locations, landscapes, signs, and local communities.
Route 66 is often called the Mother Road, but it is not the name of the town where McQueen becomes stranded. Radiator Springs is fictional, and its surrounding landscape combines elements from several real places in the American Southwest. The road’s historical role explains why Cars is as much a story about memory and change as it is about racing.