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Cars is a 2006 animated feature film produced by Pixar and directed by both John Lasseter and the late Joe Ranft. It was the seventh Disney/Pixar feature film, and the final film by Pixar before it was bought by Disney. Set in a world populated entirely by anthropomorphic cars and other vehicles, it features the voices of Owen Wilson, Bonnie Hunt, Paul Newman, Cheech Marin, Tony Shalhoub, John Ratzenberger, George Carlin, Michael Keaton, and Larry the Cable Guy, as well as cameos by several celebrities consisting of Bob Costas, Darrel Waltrip, Jay Leno, Michael Schumacher, and Mario Andretti.
Cars premiered on May 26, 2006 at Lowe's Motor Speedway in Concord, North Carolina and was released on June 9, 2006 to generally favorable reviews. It was nominated for two Academy Awards, including Best Animated Feature, and won the Golden Globe Award for Best Animated Feature Film. It was released on DVD in late 2006 and on Blu-ray Disc in late 2007. Related merchandise, including scale models of several of the cars, broke records for retail sales of merchandise based on a Disney/Pixar film, with an estimated $1 billion in sales.
The last race of the Piston Cup stock car racing season ends in a three-way tie between retiring veteran Strip "The King" Weathers, perennial runner-up and dirty fighter Chick Hicks, and rookie Lightning McQueen. A tiebreaker race is scheduled for one week later at the Los Angeles International Speedway. McQueen, eager to start practice in California as soon as possible in order to become Cup champion and gain the sponsorship of Dinoco Oil, pushes his driver Mack to travel all night long. Mack is too exhausted to notice when McQueen, asleep, falls out the back of the truck. McQueen awakes in traffic and speeds off to try to find Mack, but ends up in the run-down town of Radiator Springs, inadvertently tearing up its main street. McQueen is arrested and tried the next day by the town's judge and doctor, Doc Hudson, who at first wants McQueen out of town as fast as possible, but at the insistence of Sally Carerra, the town's lawyer, assigns him community service to repave the road.
McQueen finds that the job of pulling the asphalt-laying machine requires a slow pace despite attempts to complete it faster. As the days pass, McQueen becomes friends with many of the townsfolk, and learns that Radiator Springs was once a popular waypoint along U.S. Route 66, but effectively disappeared from the map when a nearby interstate was built and bypassed the town, causing many of the businesses and residents to leave. McQueen also discovers that Doc is actually the "Hudson Hornet", a three-time Piston Cup champion forced to retire after a racing accident, who chose to disappear quietly in Radiator Springs. McQueen, encouraged by his new friends, successfully completes the road and spends an extra day in town, cruising with Sally and partaking of businesses from the remaining shops to get a new paint job and tires. However, that night, Mack, followed by the media, finally catches up to McQueen, who reluctantly leaves Radiator Springs in order to make the race on time.
As McQueen prepares to race, his thoughts keep returning to his new friends, and distracts him from performing well. However, he is surprised to discover that Doc, outfitted in his "Hudson Hornet" colors, and others from Radiator Springs are serving as his pit crew. Encouraged by their presence and their incredible pit stop speed, as well as using tricks he learned from them while in Radiator Springs to overcome Chick Hicks' dirty tactics, McQueen is able to gain the lead. On the last lap of the race, Hicks purposely runs into The King to try to catch up to McQueen, sending The King into an accident. McQueen stops inches short of winning the Cup to drive back and push The King across the finish line, preventing what happened to Doc from happening to The King, and allowing Hicks to take the Cup. After the race, Hicks is shunned for his tactics despite his victory, while McQueen is praised by The King and his wife as well as the press and crowd for his sportsmanship. McQueen returns to Radiator Springs and announces that he will set up his off-season headquarters there, helping to revitalize the town and its business, much to the pleasure of his new friends.
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