For YMMV items specific to the first movie, see here.
YMMV items that apply to the entire franchise:
- Broken Base: Many older Pixar fans see the franchise as something of a downturn for Pixar as a whole. In general, a lot of the disdain for the franchise stems from its perceived Creator's Favorite status—after all, the sequel was greenlit on the press tour of the first movie and making it the second Pixar franchise to get a full trilogy after Toy Story, and that's on top of Disney releasing a pair of theatrically-released spin-offs. All of this in spite of the consensus that the movies represent a low point for the company. That it's also a Merchandise-Driven (no pun intended) property does not do anything to alleviate the situation, with many accusing the sequels of being made only as a cash-grab. The common sentiment among these older fans is that the movies simply aren't worthy of the embellishment that Pixar has placed upon them, and that the company's efforts would be better reserved for creating new movies that are up to the company's usual quality or creating sequels to more beloved films like Finding Nemo and The Incrediblesnote . That being said, the series does have its fans, especially among younger viewers who look at Cars as a Gateway Series for Pixar, and the third movie's trailer—with the Darker and Edgier tone and the stunning visual effects—has indicated that Pixar is taking the franchise as seriously as any other property they've put work into.
- Common Knowledge:
- Despite popular belief, Lightning McQueen was NOT named after Steve McQueen. Rather, he was named after Glenn McQueen; a supervising animator at Pixar who died in 2002. Regardless, one cannot help but compare Lightning to Steve given how the latter was a race car enthusiast.
- People latched onto Jay Ward's statement on where he thinks sentient vehicles come from as "confirmation" that cars killed off humans. Except Ward himself specified
that it was his personal opinion and not necessarily canon, and the less said about how many material in the series contradicts this theory, the better.
- Estrogen Brigade: Lightning McQueen is very popular amongst female fans, if all the fanart he gets online is evidence enough.
- Fountain of Memes: Practically everything Lightning, Mater, or Chick Hicks have said has become a highly quotable meme at some point, with all three characters having over-the-top personalities and hilariously memorable lines.
- Memetic Mutation:
- It's now something of a common internet joke to take apart the internal workings of the franchise's central premise and examine it in painstaking detail, which usually causes it to either produce horrifying results or to fall apart. For example, Sarge is a 1941 Willys Model Jeep, a vehicle created for usage in WWII, which implies that there was a Cars WWII, which means there was a Car Hitler, which implies there was a Cars Holocaust, and so on.
- Along the same lines, the existence of the Pope in-universe implies there was a car Jesus (further implied by another car saying "For the love of Chrysler"), which naturally invites discussion as to how He was crucified.
- In Cars 2, a post went viral in 2022 for noting that the existence of modern airport security standards implies that the Cars universe had a 9/11.
- Schizophrenic McQueen/"Pull off your skin!"Explanation
- Pop Culture Holiday: Since 2017, Disney has commemorated September 5 as being "Lightning McQueen day", due to Lightning's race car number being 95.
- Pop-Cultural Osmosis: The cars all have their eyes on their windshields rather than on their headlights like how they're traditionally portrayed in media. There's a very good chance people may not realize that this design choice is actually a reference to the 1952 Disney short Susie The Little Blue Coupe.
YMMV items that apply to the tie-in game:
- Best Level Ever: Monster Truck Mayhem, for being a awesome monster truck destruction derby with really cool backing music. This race was so popular that the sequel games added even more races like it!
- Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Monster Truck Mayhem: the race comes out of nowhere, has no relevance to the story, and utilises a different type of racing style from the rest of the game. However, Tropes Are Not Bad, as it turned out to be considered the Best Level Ever.
- It's Easy, So It Sucks!: While justified due to their nature as kid-appealing tie-in games, the games are often criticised for being extremely easy, to the point where you can often finish races a whole minute ahead of the closest opponent. It's to the point where some reviews recommend you play the Story Mode on Champion difficulty (accomplished by putting CHMPION as your profile name) to get any kind of challenge whatsoever.
- No Problem with Licensed Games: The Cars video game is considered to be a decent, if unchallenging, open world racing game.
- Porting Disaster: Though by no means unplayable, due to storage limitations, the Gamecube version doesn't have the bonus trailers, deleted scenes and movie clips that can be purchased in the other versions and suffers from a reduced track selection in multiplayer.
