70 free Cars Movie trivia questions with answers — entertainment quiz, new questions added Aug 2026.
67 free Cars movie trivia questions with answers, including a full Cars 3 trivia section. Cars movie trivia for anyone who has watched Lightning McQueen limp into Radiator Springs more times than they can count. This quiz covers all three Pixar films: the road trip along Route 66 that inspired the first movie, why McQueen's number is 95 and not 57, the Hudson Hornet behind Doc, the NASCAR fan who gave Mater his name, the spy plot and the lemons of Cars 2, and Cruz Ramirez, Jackson Storm, Sterling, Smokey and the Florida 500 in Cars 3. It also covers the voice cast from Owen Wilson and Paul Newman to Michael Caine and Armie Hammer, the box office and the awards, the songs, the Planes spin-offs and Cars Land at Disney California Adventure. Questions run from easy ones any kid will get to genuinely tough production trivia, each labelled by difficulty. Every answer has been checked against Wikipedia and the primary sources it cites, and each explanation adds one more thing worth knowing.
30 of 70 questions with answers and explanations. Play the quiz
Q 01Who voices Lightning McQueen in the Cars films?
Owen Wilson
Keith Ferguson takes over the role in Cars Toons and most of the video games.
Q 02Lightning McQueen's racing number was originally going to be 57. Why was it changed to 95?
To mark the year Toy Story was released
The 57 would have referred to director John Lasseter's birth year.
Q 03Lightning's surname honours whom?
Pixar animator Glenn McQueen
Glenn McQueen died in 2002; the 2017 book Cars Origins gives Lightning's birth name as Montgomery 'Monty' McQueen.
Q 04In which forgotten town along U.S. Route 66 does Lightning get stranded in the first film?
Radiator Springs
The town was bypassed when the interstate was built, which is the quiet tragedy at the heart of the movie.
Q 05Which championship trophy is Lightning chasing throughout the first film?
The Piston Cup
The season ends in a three-way tie with Chick Hicks and The King, forcing a tiebreaker in Los Angeles.
Q 06Which legendary actor voiced Doc Hudson in his last non-documentary film role?
Paul Newman
After his death in 2008 Doc was written out of Cars 2, then returned in Cars 3 through archival recordings.
Q 07Doc is a 1951 model of which car, and once raced under the name 'The Fabulous' one?
Hudson Hornet
The character was based on real Hornet drivers Marshall Teague and Herb Thomas.
Q 08How many championships did Doc win in his racing days?
Three
Lightning is dumbfounded when Doc dismisses the three trophies as meaningless.
Q 09Who voices Tow Mater?
Larry the Cable Guy
Lasseter approached him after watching the Blue Collar Comedy Tour with co-director Joe Ranft.
Q 10Mater is named for a NASCAR fan Lasseter met at a Charlotte-area speedway. What was the man's job?
Construction boss
Douglas 'Mater' Keever introduced himself with 'like tuh-mater, but without the tuh', a line that went straight into the film.
Q 11Mater's design was inspired by a rusty old wrecker spotted on Route 66 in Galena, in which state?
Kansas
The truck was later parked outside a service station as a tourist attraction and renamed 'Tow Tater' at Disney's request.
Q 12Sally, the town attorney voiced by Bonnie Hunt, is what kind of car?
A 2002 Porsche 911
In 2022 Porsche built a real one-off 911 with Pixar as a tribute, the 'Sally Special'.
Q 13Sally runs which local business, based on the real Wigwam Motel with its wigwam-shaped rooms?
The Cozy Cone
The rooms are giant traffic cones.
Q 21What was the working title of Cars in 2001, dropped to avoid confusion with a 1960s TV series?
Route 66
Jorgen Klubien's even earlier script, The Yellow Car, was about an electric car in a gas-guzzling world.
Q 22Cars was dedicated to Joe Ranft, a Pixar story chief and co-writer who died how?
In a car crash
He voiced Red the fire truck; his brother Jerome took the role in Cars 3.
Q 23Where did Cars hold its premiere on May 26, 2006?
Lowe's Motor Speedway
The speedway is in Concord, North Carolina; the film opened nationwide on June 9.
Q 14Chick Hicks, Lightning's cheating rival voiced by Michael Keaton, wears which racing number?
86
He steals McQueen's 'ka-chow' and turns it into 'ka-chicka', and his grille looks like a 1980s moustache.
Q 15Which NASCAR legend voices Strip 'The King' Weathers, a 1970 Plymouth Superbird?
Richard Petty
His real wife Lynda Petty voices The King's wife, and Waltrip appears as announcer Darrell Cartrip.
Q 16Which comedian voiced Fillmore, the hippie Volkswagen bus, in the first film?
George Carlin
After Carlin died in 2008, Lloyd Sherr took over for the sequels; Cheech Marin voices the lowrider Ramone.
Q 17Luigi's tyre shop is famous for a stack of tyres shaped like which landmark?
The Leaning Tower of Pisa
Luigi is a 1959 Fiat 500 voiced by Tony Shalhoub; his forklift friend Guido speaks only Italian, except for 'pit stop'.
Q 18Which Pixar regular voices Mack, Lightning's transporter truck?
John Ratzenberger
Ratzenberger's own father drove a Mack truck.
Q 19Lizzie, the elderly Model T who runs the curio shop, is the widow of which car?
Stanley, the town's founder
She was voiced by Katherine Helmond, whose last franchise appearance was Cars 3 before her death in 2019.
Q 20Which Route 66 historian voices Sheriff and led Pixar's animators on research trips down the highway?
Michael Wallis
He took eleven animators along the route in rented white Cadillacs.
Q 24Cars was the last film Pixar made independently before which company bought the studio in January 2006?
Disney
The film grossed $462 million worldwide on a $120 million budget.
Q 25Cars lost the Best Animated Feature Oscar to which film?
Happy Feet
It did win the inaugural Golden Globe for Best Animated Feature Film and the Annie Award.
Q 26Which Randy Newman song from Cars won a Grammy and was nominated for the Best Original Song Oscar?
Our Town
It lost the Oscar to 'I Need to Wake Up' from An Inconvenient Truth.
Q 27Which country act recorded the version of 'Life Is a Highway' heard in Cars?
Rascal Flatts
Sheryl Crow, John Mayer and Brad Paisley also contributed songs to the soundtrack.
Q 28Cars is often compared to which 1991 Michael J. Fox comedy about a doctor stuck in a small town?
Doc Hollywood
Some critics went as far as alleging the Cars script plagiarised it.
Q 29Which three-race international event does Lightning enter in Cars 2?
The World Grand Prix
The three-race event was created by Sir Miles Axlerod to promote his alternative fuel Allinol.
Q 30Which British actor voices the spy Finn McMissile in Cars 2?
Michael Caine
The car's design borrows from the Aston Martin DB5 and BMW 507, with fins from a 1958 Peerless.