Who performs the song “Life Is a Highway” in Pixar's Cars?

Rascal Flatts performs “Life Is a Highway” in Pixar's Cars.

The country music group recorded a version of Tom Cochrane's 1991 song specifically for the film's soundtrack. It plays during a lively travel montage showing Lightning McQueen and Mack crossing the country while heading toward the Piston Cup tiebreaker race in California.

The song became closely associated with Cars because its road imagery matches the film's themes of travel, speed, friendship, and changing direction. Rascal Flatts' recording was also released as a single and helped make the soundtrack one of the movie's most recognizable musical elements.

Tom Cochrane wrote and originally recorded “Life Is a Highway,” so the Pixar connection is sometimes credited incorrectly to him alone. In Cars, however, the version heard by audiences is the Rascal Flatts cover, not the original recording.