History WesternAnimation / Cars3

* NewTechnologyIsEvil: There's a degree of this. Lightning doesn't understand the new simulator technology and prefers getting his tires muddy while training. [[spoiler: Cruz is able to win her race with a mix of skills from both her time as a trainer in a high tech facility and roughing it in the back country with racing legends.]]

* AdultFear: Being deemed too old to do what you love.

* ChasteToons: The King (played by Richard Petty) and Cal (played by Richard's son Kyle) are uncle and nephew.

** As a retroactive example, look closely and you'll find that most of the next-generation racers resemble muscle cars. In the 2018 [=NASCAR=] season, the Chevrolet Camaro [=ZL1=] (a well-known pony/muscle car) replaces the Holden Commodore-derived Chevrolet [=SS=] saloon.

* SuddenlyVoiced: Dr. Damage, one of Miss Fritter's {{Mooks}} who only spoke using "Wee-oo-wee-oo", uses full dialogue in the short for the first time.

* CompanyCrossReferences: A shelf in Sterling's office has Disney/{{Cinderella}}'s carriage on it.

** If Lightning loses the race, he'll lose his job forever; [[Disney/{{Zootopia}} he isn't the only Disney protagonist who encountered this bet.]]

** [[Disney/{{Cinderella}} Cinderella's carriage]] can be seen on one of the shelves in Sterling's office.

* RealityEnsues:
** Lightning's desperate attempt to keep pace with Jackson Storm and the other newer racers causes him to crash, as he is not only one of the older racers, but simply isn't built to handle the kinds of speeds the more high-tech racers are designed for. Though his accident is more of a result of Lightning losing focus after Jackson asks him an ArmorPiercingQuestion. [[spoiler: Even with Lightning training under his mentor's mentor, he's gotten too old to beat Cruz, whose been going through the same training but is much younger.]]
** After [=McQueen's=] accident and his self-isolation for three months, Radiator Springs becomes very quiet since their star attraction has lost public interest.
** The Rust-eze brothers realize that they can't provide Lightning with the tools he needs to train to be better than Storm and the next-gen racers, so they decide to sell their brand and Lightning's sponsorship to a larger company that can provide those types of facilities.

* TheReasonYouSuckSpeech: Lightning delivers one to Cruz after he gets showed up at the demolition derby and realizes he never focused on improving his speed hence taking care of her instead. Cruz then rebounds Lightning with her own rant towards him, stating she never wanted to be a trainer in the first place, but a racer and how she used to look up to Lightning.

* SelfDeprecation: The scene with all sorts of Lightning [=McQueen=] merch lined up to be sold seems to be a dig at the franchise's own status as a merchandise-heavy franchise.

* TakeThat: The next-gen racers appear to be one towards the current state of NASCAR, namely the loss of the "stock" aspect and an over-reliance on technology. Though the current Cup Series cars are ''nothing'' like the Le Mans-style cars seen in the movie.

Previews: [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4K7JgPJ8-s Teaser]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U1eQYk74R1g Trailer 1]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MYKmJJB3vFY Trailer 2]], [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2LeOH9AGJQM Trailer 3]].

** Ryan Blaney, the up-and-coming driver for the Wood Brothers' #21 Ford, as Ryan "Inside" Laney.

** All three members of the NASCAR on Fox commentating crew show up: Darrell Waltrip and Jeff Gordon once again return as Darrell Cartrip and Jeff Gorvette, but now Mike Joy joins them as a Citroën 2CV named 'Mike Joyride'.

** Junior Moon is voiced by Junior Johnson, the NASCAR Hall-of-Famer. Other [[RetiredBadass Retired Badasses]] Lightning meets in Thomasville were based on NASCAR legends too.

** The Rust-eze brothers realize that they can't provide Lightning with the tools he needs to train and be better than Storm and the next-gen racers, so they decide to sell their brand and Lightning's sponsorship to a larger company that can provide those types of facilities.

* TheUnreveal: While it is all but stated that Doc is dead, it's still unknown how he died in the first place.

** Jackson Storm's fate after the final race remains unknown. We also don't know what happens to Bobby, Brick and the other veterans after their replacements.

** It was never resolved what happened to Sterling after [[spoiler: Tex brought Rust-eze from him after the final race]].

* HypocriticalHumor: During Storm's winning streak, Chick takes every opportunity to make fun of [=McQueen's=] age (in his first scene, he directly refers to Lighting as an "old-timer") despite the fact that Chick's own racing career was coming to an end around the time that ''[=McQueen=]'' was a rookie and was roughly 2 decades older then him.

* OffscreenTeleportation: The janitor that Lightning stares at eventually suddenly appears before him after looking away for a moment, then he blinks and she's back to her original spot. Than again, [[DaydreamSurprise it's just a daydream.]]

* OlderHeroVsYoungerVillain: [=McQueen=], a racing legend by now vs. Storm, the first of a new generation, though Storm is more of a {{Jerkass}} [[TheRival Rival]] than outright villain.

** [[spoiler: You can see this in the beginning of the movie, as all of Lightning McQueen's peers are replaced one by one by younger racers, and Lightning overhears one of his friends being unceremoniously dumped by his sponsor, despite winning multiple races the year before.]]
* AndIMustScream:
** Lightning's crash. Initiating with his back right tire blowing out and swerving out of control, he smashes into the wall hard enough to send him into a midair barrel roll as his parts come off one at a time. He smashes here and there, and when he finally comes to a stop, he lies unconscious releasing smoke. To top it all off, unlike Doc's crash which was on sand and The King's which was on the infield, his was on the hard asphalt. Ouch.
** Also during the demolition derby, Lightning gets a buzz saw ''stuck in his tire''.

** The movie begins and ends with a race. [[spoiler: Also, The last race of the first film ends with the rookie Lightning McQueen choosing to help an old racing legend finish his last race. In Cars 3's last race, he's an old racing legend who doesn't finish but gives up his place to a rookie, and they both win. Both films also end with a racing legend becoming a rookie's personal mentor when not racing (Doc, who is retired, becomes one to Lightning, whist Lightning himself becomes one to Cruz).]]

* ButtMonkey: The King's nephew; Cal Weathers is the butt of many jokes throughout the first half of the movie. It gets bad enough that Tex Dinoco talks about replacing him with Lightning in front of his face after a race. Lightning becomes one with a dose of DudeWheresMyRespect add in to through out most of the movie post crash. He is relentlessly teased about his age by Cruz (who says she's a fan of his) and Smokey and the racing legends who are ironically several decades older then him.

* EvolutionaryLevels: Jackson Storm and Cruz are of a higher level than Lightning McQueen.

** During the final practice race, Lightning manages to pass Cruz as celebratory music accompanys the success, only for Cruz to suddenly zoom right past him not even ten seconds later. Cue a gobsmacked Lightning, distracted and remembering the "McQueen is fading... fading fast" signal from his crash four months earlier.

* {{Understatement}}: Late into the film, Ramone is asked to paint [[spoiler:[=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 [[spoiler:it's an over-stylised "95" which he even managed to duplicate on Cruz's other side.]]

* ExactWords: [=McQueen=] [[spoiler: ''technically'' wins the Florida 500 (see also TruthInTelevision below), despite not being the number 95 car that finished the race, so he wins his bet against Sterling and doesn't have to retire.]]

* TheUnreveal: While it is all but stated that Doc is dead, it's unknown how he died in the first place.

* VagueAge: Lightning [=McQueen=] is teased about his age through out the movie but isn't specified what age he is. The director Brian Fee implies he is around his mid to late 40s. Or a car's equivalent since it is still ambiguous how cars age in relation to humans. One example is Cruz saying she ''grew up'' watching him on TV, implying she's more than a year old (since her description implies she's in her early to mid 20s, same goes for all the next gen racers).
* VehicularCombat: The Crazy Eight at Thunder Hollow is a demolition derby where cars ram each each other until only one remains.
* VillainExitStageLeft: [[spoiler: When Sterling notices Lightning and Cruz's shared win, resulting in him winning the bet and gets to keep his job, he is escorted away by Tex who negotiates Rusteze away from him for an unspecified amount.]]

* RealityEnsues: Lightning's desperate attempt to keep pace with Jackson Storm and the other newer racers causes him to crash, as he is not only one of the older racers, but simply isn't built to handle the kinds of speeds the more high-tech racers are designed for. Though his accident is more of a result of Lightning losing focus after Jackson asks him an ArmorPiercingQuestion. [[spoiler: Even with Lightning training under his mentor's mentor, he's gotten too old to beat Cruz, whose been going through the same training but is much younger.]]

** Rusty and Dusty vanish from the rest of the film after they leave Lightning following their announcement having sold Rust-eze to Sterling. [[spoiler: They do make an appearance in the end credits however, having apparently went on vacation somewhere.]]

** Lightning and Cruz's training session on the beach [[spoiler:heavily foreshadows him becoming her mentor, as despite his frustration with having to teach her how to drive on sand, he keeps at it. And by the end, Cruz is able to keep up with him.]]
*** The same thing happens at the demolition derby [[spoiler:as Lightning spends over half the race yelling instructions to Cruz on how to survive the onslaught. This is even when he gives her the same advice Doc gave him all those years ago of "turning right to go left".]]

* GettingCrapPastTheRadar:
** "Life's a beach. And then, you drive."
** Roscoe, the gate keeper at the Crazy 8s demolition derby, says the third rule is "no cursing".
** [[spoiler: After Cruz beats Jackson at the Florida 500 and Natalie is up in the announcer's box thinking of the shared win, the way she says it is...quite suggestive]].
** Lightning going outside in primer and Ramone pointing out he can't race in that is probably an inside-joke at someone going outside naked.

* DescriptionCut: Early on in the movie, Lightning shouts out to his friends "Let's see what you've got!" Cue Jackson Storm making his grand entrance and suddenly overtaking the trio for the win.

** 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, renders, 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.

* NeverSayDie: Averted with Lightning's hilarious apology rap to Cruz, when he says "It wasn't your fault that I almost got killed".

* InsultBackfire: It's enormously satisfying to see Jackson Storm HoistByHisOwnPetard when one of his nasty little psych-out [[SteathInsult Stealth Insults]] blows up in his face, [[spoiler:giving Cruz the motivation she needed to win the race.]]

* ArtisticLicenseSports: Face it, in a ''real'' NASCAR race, Jackson's finishing move of [[spoiler:deliberately slamming Cruz into a wall and pinning her there]] would earn him an ''instant'' black flag, DQ, and probably a fat fine to boot.