“Our Town” from Pixar’s Cars was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Original Song.
Randy Newman wrote “Our Town,” and the song plays over a reflective sequence showing Radiator Springs in earlier years and its gradual decline after the main highway bypasses the town. Its lyrics and arrangement emphasize memory, community, and the passage of time.
The nomination made Cars part of the Academy Awards’ music history. “Our Town” competed at the 79th Academy Awards, where the award went to “I Need to Wake Up” from An Inconvenient Truth, written by Melissa Etheridge.
A common mistake is choosing “Life Is a Highway,” which is strongly associated with the film’s soundtrack but is a cover performed by Rascal Flatts rather than the nominated original song. “Real Gone” and “Find Yourself” are also prominent Cars tracks, but they were not the nominee.