Why 20 Years Later "Cars" Is Still One of the Best Car Movies Ever Made

This year marks the 20th anniversary of Pixar’s Cars, which is kind of hard to believe. On the surface, it is easy to think of it as a kids movie about talking race cars, but the older I get, the more I think the movie is really about something much bigger. It is about ambition, identity, friendship, community, getting older, and learning that the things we chase are not always the things that end up mattering most.

Lightning McQueen starts the movie completely focused on winning. He wants the trophy, the attention, the sponsorship, and everything that comes with being successful. Then he gets stuck in Radiator Springs, a place he sees as old, slow, and completely irrelevant to where he wants to go. But as he spends time there, he starts to see value in the very things he had been overlooking. The people matter. The history matters. The slower pace matters. He begins to understand that life is not only about moving as fast as possible toward the next accomplishment.

That is probably one of the reasons Cars connects so well with people who actually love cars. A car is rarely just transportation. It can remind you of your father, your first job, your first date, your best friend, or a time in your life you wish you could visit again. Sometimes just hearing an engine start or sitting in an old interior can bring back memories you had not thought about in years. Cars have a strange way of holding onto pieces of our lives.

Classic cars especially seem to carry that feeling. They are imperfect. They have scratches, worn seats, faded paint, old repairs, and parts that have probably been replaced more than once. That is part of what gives them character. A brand new car can be impressive, but an old car has already lived. Somebody drove it to work. Somebody took it on a road trip. Somebody probably argued in it, laughed in it, fell in love in it, and maybe even handed the keys to someone else years later. When you restore an old car, you are not erasing its history. You are becoming part of it.

Radiator Springs is really a reflection of that same idea. The town used to matter because Route 66 brought people through it. Then the interstate came along and everyone started moving faster. Suddenly the goal became getting somewhere as quickly as possible, and the experience of the road became less important. The town was forgotten. I think that part of the movie means more when you get older, because life can start to feel exactly like that. Work, bills, family, deadlines, appointments, emails. You move from one responsibility to the next and sometimes do not realize how much you are passing by.

Then there is Doc Hudson, who may be the most interesting character in the movie. He had talent, success, trophies, and an identity built around being a race car. Then that part of his life ended and the world moved on. He carried that disappointment for years. A lot of men can probably relate to that in some way. We spend so much of our lives defining ourselves by what we do, what we earn, what we accomplish, and what we provide. Eventually, life has a way of forcing us to ask who we are when those things change.

That is why the ending works so well. Lightning McQueen has the chance to win the race, but he gives it up to help The King finish. At the beginning of the movie, winning was everything. By the end, he understands that there are things more important than being first. That moment is not really about racing. It is about character. It is about realizing that who you become matters more than what you collect along the way.

I think that is also why car culture means so much to people. Cars give people a reason to gather. They give fathers and their kids something to work on together. They give strangers something to talk about. They create memories in garages, driveways, parking lots, road trips, and car shows. The car might be what brings people together, but usually something more meaningful happens around it.

That is a big part of what we are trying to build with The Rebuild. Yes, we are restoring a car. We are learning how things work, solving problems, using tools, and trying to bring an old machine back to life. But the car is also creating a reason for people to show up, spend time together, learn from one another, and become part of something. The work matters, but so does everything that happens around the work.

Twenty years later, that might be the real reason Cars still holds up so well. It reminds us that life is not only about getting somewhere as fast as possible. Sometimes the road itself matters. The people beside you matter. The things you build matter. The memories you make along the way matter. And maybe that is what the best cars have always done for us. They take us somewhere, but they also remind us where we have been.

Written By: Luis Resendez