List of Cars characters
Cars is a media franchise including the 2006 film Cars, the 2011 film Cars 2, the 2017 film Cars 3, the 2022 series Cars on the Road, the 2013 film Planes, and the 2014 film Planes: Fire & Rescue. This page is a list of characters that have appeared in the franchise.
Piston Cup Championship
Lightning McQueen
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Montgomery "Monty" McQueen,[1][2] more commonly called Lightning McQueen (voiced by Owen Wilson in the films, Cars on the Road, video game adaption, Kinect Rush: A Disney-Pixar Adventure, and Lego The Incredibles, Ben Rausch in Cars 3: Driven to Win, and Keith Ferguson in Cars Toons and most video games),[3] is a 2006 custom-built race car who competes in the Piston Cup Racing Series, with 95 as his racing number. His design is a hybrid of Generation 4 NASCAR vehicles and Le Mans endurance racers.[4] Lightning was initially very arrogant until becoming stranded in Radiator Springs on U.S. Route 66, where he learned about the importance of humility. He has since taken permanent residence there and has made the town the site of his racing headquarters. He is Mater’s best friend and is Sally's boyfriend. His signature catchphrases are "ka-chow" and "I am speed", which have become synonymous with the Cars franchise as a whole.
Mack
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Mack (voiced by John Ratzenberger, whose father drove a Mack truck)[5] is a modified 1985 Mack Super-Liner class 8 truck who serves as Lightning's loyal transporter. After the Dinoco 400, Lightning convinces Mack to drive all night to the tie-breaker race in Los Angeles despite that federal DOT regulations grant Mack ten hours to rest.[6] Mack struggles to stay awake as a result, with an ensuing mishap causing Lightning to fall out of Mack's trailer. Mack later arrives in Radiator Springs to retrieve McQueen after his location is revealed and becomes a resident of the town with McQueen. He returns as a minor character in Cars 2 and as a supporting character in Cars 3.
Sterling
Sterling (voiced by Nathan Fillion[7]) is a wealthy business car who briefly becomes the new owner of Rust-eze Bumper Ointment in Cars 3. He resembles a modernized 1968 BMW E9. After meeting Lightning, Sterling assigns Cruz to train him and prepare him for the Florida 500. After watching Lightning's poor performance on the racing simulator, Sterling attempts to force him into retirement. Lightning agrees to retire if he loses the upcoming Florida 500, but otherwise keeps his right to decide. After Lightning and Cruz both win the Florida 500, Cruz declines Sterling's offer to race for him and accepts Tex Dinoco instead, who purchases Rust-eze from Sterling.
Cruz Ramirez
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Cruz Ramirez (voiced by Cristela Alonzo)[8] is Lightning's trainer and technician at the Rust-eze Racing Center. She is a yellow high-performance sports car that has styling characteristics of a Jaguar F-Type and Chevrolet Corvette (C7). Cruz is known for training some of the best rookie race cars through her unconventional training methods. After Sterling introduces Cruz to Lightning, he assigns her to train Lightning for the Florida 500. At the Florida 500, Sterling orders Cruz back to the racing center to train one of the rookies. Lightning overhears the exchange on his radio and exits the race to allow Cruz to take his place, giving her a chance to become a racer. Using what she learned from Lightning and Smokey, Cruz catches up to Jackson Storm. Storm is furious at the thought of a standard production car beating him in a race and rams Cruz into the wall on the final lap, but she manages to evade him and wins. Cruz later accepts Tex Dinoco's offer to race for his team and chooses 51 as her racing number as a tribute to Doc Hudson. She returns as a playable character in Cars 3: Driven to Win.
Strip Weathers
Strip "The King" Weathers (voiced by Richard Petty)[5] is a veteran race car and racing legend. Weathers is an anthropomorphic version of Petty's 1970 Plymouth Superbird stock car, sporting the same shade of blue and Petty's racing number, 43, as well as being a fictionalized version of Petty himself.[9] He is one of the racers in the Dinoco 400 three-way tie, along with Chick Hicks and Lightning McQueen. Known as Dinoco's "Golden Boy" having won a total of seven Piston Cups,[10] Weathers is hoping for his eighth win in the tiebreaker race before entering retirement. He returns in Cars 3 as the crew chief of his nephew, Cal Weathers.
Tex Dinoco
Tex Dinoco (voiced by Humpy Wheeler)[11] is a gold 1975 Cadillac Coupe de Ville who owns Dinoco Oil and is the boss of the Dinoco racing team. His most well known racer is Strip "The King" Weathers, who won the Piston Cup a total of seven times before his retirement. In Cars, Tex refused to give Chick Hicks a Dinoco sponsorship after he intentionally caused The King to crash and offered it to McQueen instead, although McQueen respectfully declined due to his newfound respect for Rust-eze. In Cars 3, Tex purchases Rust-eze Bumper Ointment from Sterling, thus allowing Lightning McQueen to race alongside Cruz under the merged Rust-eze/Dinoco brand.
Darrell Cartrip
Darrell Cartrip (voiced by Darrell Waltrip in Cars, Cars 2, Cars 3, Cars: The Video Game, and Cars 3: Driven to Win) is a retired Piston Cup racer who serves as an RSN commentator alongside Bob Cutlass for Piston Cup series races, and also briefly for Miles Axlerod's World Grand Prix. Cartrip is known for his comedic and lighthearted style of commentary, contrasting other announcers' more traditional approach. He is based on a 1977 Chevrolet Monte Carlo stock car and is painted metallic silver with a red and yellow flame design on his front end.
Chick Hicks
Chick Hicks (voiced by Michael Keaton in Cars, Cars: The Video Game, and Cars Race-O-Rama, and Bob Peterson in Cars 3)[5] is a green stock car and Lightning's main rival. Chick is an arrogant race car who often cheats to gain position in races. He is sponsored by Hostile Takeover Bank and resembles a 1987 Buick Regal Grand National, with his grill resembling a 1980s-style mustache. His racing number is 86. Chick frequently antagonizes McQueen, and even lifts his catchphrase "ka-chow", modifying it to "ka-chicka", to both boost his popularity, and to annoy McQueen. He wins the final race in the first movie after taking out the King, but finds that that does not gain him the popularity he so craved when an angered crowd and media boo him for his actions. In Cars 3, Hicks has retired from racing and hosts his own talk show, Chick's Picks on Racing Sports Network, where he continues to mock McQueen at every opportunity, repeatedly bringing up his Piston Cup victory over McQueen in the first movie, implying that he retired after the championship. Hicks returns in Cars: The Video Game, Cars: Race-O-Rama, and also Cars 3: Driven to Win as a boss and playable character.
Jackson Storm
Jackson Storm (voiced by Armie Hammer in the film,[12] AJ Hamilton in Cars 3: Driven to Win) is an arrogant custom-built "next-gen" race car, and Lightning's main rival in Cars 3. Storm is stated to be technologically superior to Lightning and the other "last-gen" racers in nearly every way, and his fastest speed is recorded as 214 miles per hour at Florida International Super Speedway. In the film, Storm appears out of nowhere and starts winning race after race, forcing many last-generation race cars to retire. During the last race of the season, Lightning pushes himself too hard while trying to compete with Storm and loses control, resulting in a rollover crash. At the Florida 500, Storm is intimidated by Lightning's former trainer Cruz Ramirez, who replaces Lightning in the race. He attempts to make her lose focus by telling her that she is not the type of car who belongs on a racetrack. Cruz regains her confidence and drives up next to Storm, who rams her into a wall. Cruz manages to flip over Storm at the last moment, passing him and wins the race, it is unknown what happened to Storm after losing to Cruz. Storm's racing number is 20, styled 2.0.
Radiator Springs
Tow Mater
Sir Tow Mater, better known as simply Mater, (voiced by Larry the Cable Guy),[5] is a rusty blue Southern-accented tow truck resembling a 1957 Chevrolet Task Force. Mater is the primary tow truck in Radiator Springs and operates his own salvage yard. He is Lightning's best friend and eagerly supports him both on and off the racetrack.
In Cars 2, Mater returns as the main protagonist of the second film and was chosen by McQueen to be his crew chief in the World Grand Prix until being mistaken for a C.H.R.O.M.E. agent by spy in training Holley Shiftwell. Mater becomes Shiftwell's boyfriend later in the film. Mater returns in Cars 3 as a supporting character.
Sally Carrera
Sally Carrera (voiced by Bonnie Hunt)[5] is Radiator Springs' town attorney and Lightning's girlfriend. She is a 2002 Porsche 911 Carrera. In addition to being the town attorney, Sally is also the hotel manager of the Cozy Cone Motel, which is based on the Wigwam Motel. She is a major character in Cars and a supporting character in Cars 2 and Cars 3.
In 2022, Porsche made a one-off Porsche 911 in collaboration with Pixar as a tribute to the character, referred to as the "Sally Special".[13]
Doc Hudson
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Doc Hudson (voiced by Paul Newman in the first and third films and the video game adaptation of the first film, and Corey Burton in Cars Mater-National and Cars Race-O-Rama)[14] was Radiator Springs' medical doctor, judge, and Lightning's mentor/crew chief. He is a 1951 Hudson Hornet who raced in the Piston Cup as the Fabulous Hudson Hornet until an accident prematurely ended his career. Paul Newman, his voice actor, died in September 2008, and it is implied that Hudson died at some point between Cars and Cars 2. Doc appeared in Cars 3 in flashbacks, being voiced by archival recordings of Newman.[15] He was based on Hudson Hornet drivers Marshall Teague and Herb Thomas.