Terse Talker: Dr. Damage doesn’t say anything other than a siren’s imitation “Wee-oo-wee-oo-wee-oo”. Central Theme: Growing up and learning to accept your age and preparing for an imminent retirement if it happens. 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.

But Thou Must!: At the Thunder Hollow Crazy 8, once the gate closes you must race, with no way out.Proscenium Reveal: The opening scene shows Lightning and Cruz in Thomasville while the former races the old legends, including Doc...then it's revealed to have come from the simulator he's trying out.

Hour Ranger: Played straight with Cruz in the final race. After Lightning overhears her argument with Sterling over the mic, he decides to let her take over for him so she can succeed at her racing dream. It is her epic win against Storm that she becomes a racer and helps Lightning fulfill the bet against Sterling. Vague Age: Lightning McQueen is teased about his age throughout 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). Libbey, Dirk (April 27, 2017). "Will Pixar Ever Do Cars 4?". CinemaBlend. Future plc. Archived from the original on April 28, 2017 . Retrieved November 8, 2021. Vehicular Combat: The Crazy Eight at Thunder Hollow is a demolition derby where cars ram each other until only one remains. Master-Apprentice Chain: Smokey - Doc Hudson - Lightning - Cruz. The film spends a lot of time showing the ways history repeats, as well as how it doesn't.Overcrank: McQueen's crash, as first displayed in the teaser, is disturbingly shown in slow motion. There is one specific scene in the first act that plays this trope horribly straight. Even despite Guido's incredible speed in doing pitstops since the first movie, it is still not enough for McQueen to beat Storm. Case in point, the latter caught up to the former in just mere seconds after Guido completed the pitstop! The Smurfette Principle: We don't see more than one female car at a time competing in the main championship, both in the past and in the present. After reaching the racing center, Lightning is fitted into an electronic suit which he wears for the majority of his training. It is finally ripped to shreds and comes apart during the midnight forest run with Smokey and the retired legends.

Bob Peterson also voices Dr. Damage, a white and orange modified ambulance who partakes in the Crazy 8 demolition derby. Just when Lightning announces he’ll go to Thunder Hollow to compete with real racers, as Luigi is speaking Cruz can be seen slumping dejectedly. This foreshadows she wanted to be a racer like Lightning, but lost her only chance.

After she wins the Florida 500 for Lightning, Cruz turns down the offer to race for Sterling and resigns as a trainer, and chooses to race for Dinoco instead. In the first film, Lightning willingly turns down the Dinoco sponsorship in favor of Rust-eze, having learned the film's moral. Sebastian Vettel and Fernando Alonso voiced the foreign language versions of Hamilton, with Vettel voicing 'Vettel' and 'Sebastian' in the Italian and German adaptations respectively, and Alonso voicing 'Fernando' in the Spanish adaptation. In the junior novelization of the movie, The King does not appear when Lightning pranks Cal during the pit stop scene at the beginning of the movie. It also cuts out the part where some of the next-gens congratulate Cruz on her big win at the Florida 500 near the end.