Bested by the Inexperienced: Non race car Cruz Ramirez switches out with Lightning McQueen and is able to win her first race against a number of experienced racers. Dr. Damage makes his first speaking appearance in the short Miss Fritter's Racing Skoool, where he talks about the positive impact Miss Fritter has had on his life. In the short, he reveals that he lost his job due to a broken siren and him being accident-prone. However, with the help of Miss Fritter, he has turned his accident-proneness into his greatest strength, and she helped him "fix" his siren too. However, in reality, he was just making the sound with his mouth.

The MPH display on the racing simulator starts reading "ERROR Mph" as Lightning's attempt at using it goes increasingly awry. The computers voice repeating every wrong move he does such as "you have hit a wall", "you have destroyed a drinking fountain", and "you have crashed (on repeat)" counts as well. Understatement: Late into the film, Ramone is asked to paint McQueen's number onto Cruz. After he's done, he's unsure about the result due to the very short timeframe he was given. It's then revealed that it's an over-stylised "95" which he even managed to duplicate on Cruz's other side. Advertised Extra: A lot of the racers besides Lightning, Storm and Cruz, both normal and next-gen, had lots of diecasts and plaques as part of the Cars 3 exhibit in the NASCAR Hall Of Fame, but they didn't have large roles and participated as extras. Art Shift: Though there remains a slightly anthropomorphized edge to the character animation, the look of the film focuses more on looking realistic than its more stylized predecessors. The racing scenes in particular are especially more resembling of actual races.Demolition derby participants High Impact, Broadside, Bill and Airborne appear driving around in Thunder Hollow Speedway. Bill is also an AI competitor in the Battle Race Master-Level Event. At the Los Angeles 500, though it's implied Lightning is the only veteran left, there are actually six participants who are veterans. All are replaced by next-gens by the Florida 500. But Now I Must Go: When Lightning is suddenly overtaken by Cruz in their last practice race before the Florida 500, Lightning realizes there's no more time to practice and they should depart for Florida immediately.

Crazy-Prepared: Meta-example. The directors at Pixar recorded almost everything Paul Newman said during the taping of Cars 1, to the point they had over 25 hours of footage of Newman talking, be it takes for the film, random anecdotes or just general chat. 10 years later, and eight years after his death, this footage paid off as they were able to get Newman to posthumously reprise his role through the recorded footage. Orbital Shot: Lightning has one in the opening scene just before the movie's title is displayed on the scoring pylon. So Last Season: Essentially the whole premise of McQueen's situation, where he is utterly outmatched by the new generation of racers.Mater wears a hat to every race he attends except the Los Angeles 500, which hints at Lightning's struggle (leading to the iconic crash scene) later on. Odd Name Out: The names Cruz gives her tires are "María", "Juaníta", "Ronaldo", and "Debbie Richardson". Heroic RRoD: McQueen's crash counts as this since seconds before his tire blows out, you can hear him breathing heavily while he's struggling to catch up to Storm. Friend-or-Idol Decision: Lightning spends the bulk of the film trying to prove that he's not too old to keep racing and shouldn't retire just yet. By the climax, he realizes Cruz wanted to be a racer just like he is, and resigns from the race halfway through so she can take over. When she wins, she turns down the deal to race for Sterling and chooses to race for Dinoco instead, and when Lightning is about to accept his fate that since he lost he has to retire immediately, he is considered a winner along with Cruz due to both sharing the number, thus he wins the bet and gets to keep racing. Not only does he help a friend, he gets the idol as well!

Schaefer, Sandy (June 11, 2016). "Cars 3: John Lasseter Talks 'Very Emotional' Story". Screen Rant. Valnet, Inc. Archived from the original on January 14, 2018 . Retrieved November 8, 2021. One Last Field Trip: Lightning's bet is to either win the Florida 500 or retire from racing forever; his goal is to avoid making the Florida 500 this. Overcrank: McQueen's crash, as first displayed in the teaser, is disturbingly shown in slow motion. Lightning is offered the Dinoco sponsorship even though he lost, but turns it down and keeps Rust-eze. Following the fact he won his bet with Sterling after being considered a winner along with Cruz, Lightning decides to continue racing. In addition, both decisions are followed by a request being fulfilled, though not word-per-word (Mater riding in the Dinoco helicopter, Lightning signing as Cruz's crew chief for the rest of the season). Hope Spot: McQueen's final training before the Florida 500, when Cruz overtakes him and wins despite him catching up moments before.After Cruz takes over, she has to beat the pace car so she isn't a lap down, like how Lightning did after getting his rapid fire pit stop from Guido. Lightning's paint job is slightly different at the beginning, specifically he is a bit desaturated red and the Rust-eze logos on his hood, fenders, spoiler, and bumper are in a more modernized font than the usual. This foreshadows that the new generation of high-tech racers are about to show up, and therefore blindside him to the point of his unintentional fateful crash at the Los Angeles 500. Sound-Effect Bleep: At one point during the Crazy 8, the taxi cab yells, "Hey! Get the [honk] out of my way!", making the first time in the franchise someone actually said a far worse word.