Cars: Race-O-Rama

Cars: Race-O-Rama is the third main series installment in the line of Cars video games. It is considerably different from the first two games for no longer having a very easy difficulty. The majority of characters are also now playable as opposed to the majority of the game's cast having not been playable in the first two games. The previous progress track has been replaced with a simple "Bronze/Silver/Gold Trophy" mechanic as opposed to Trophies and Bolt Banners. It was released on October 12th, 2009 for the PS2, PS3, Wii, DS, Xbox 360, and PSP.

Story

Lightning is hosting in a series of races called the Race-O-Rama where a newly founded racing academy owned by Doc Hudson is competing against another academy with an unknown owner, and Lightning soon gets into a race with some students, but it only lasts until they all hit their brakes when the enemy students start cheating, and their leader is unveiled to be Chick Hicks, who says he will take over Radiator Springs and shut down the DH Racing Academy. The story isn't explained very much after that, only that Lightning is put up against three vicious allies of Chick named Candice, El Machismo, and Stinger. Mater also once again is antagonized by long-time rival Bubba. In the end, Chick Hicks, his students (most of which became VINs), and Bubba are all defeated. However, Candice, El Machismo, Stinger, and Bubba's allies, Tater and Tater Jr. have turned good.

Characters

Playable

Non-Playable

(Judd and Buford are also present in the game's files, but can never normally be seen in-game)

Cameo/Unseen

PS2 Version

Among the various versions, the PS2 version is much worse than the PS3, Wii, and Xbox 360 versions of the game, here are a few reasons why, with others being listed on their respective articles.

Lower graphics
Loading screens inbetween Radiator Springs, Ornament Valley, and Tailfin Pass, like in the first two games
Three Point to Point races are absent
Fewer fully playable characters
4 racers per race instead of 8
Some Paint Jobs and Kit Parts are absent
Some of the Concept art is missing
One glitch occurs only on this version (Guido's eyes)

Trivia

Race-O-Rama would remain the only main series game not to have a PC version for 8 years until 2017 when Cars 3: Driven to Win was announced not to have a PC version either.
This is the last game to be published by THQ, along with being the last game to feature video game-only NPCs (such as Tommy Joe and Count Spatula).
This is also the last game to feature exploration mode.
This is the only game where the player can have any number of points, in the first game, the number must be divisible by 5, and by 50 in Mater-National.
This is also the last game to officially feature Doc, as he would be killed off after this game.
This is the only game where Lightning can be customized. Although the now defunct World of Cars Online could also have been said to, as the player avatar was very similar to Lightning.
Emma is notable of appearing only in the handheld versions of the game (and is playable in both of them). As opposed to this, Sheriff only appears in the main versions of these games.
This was the last Cars game to be released on the PlayStation 2.
Unlike the prior games, Radiator Springs can never be seen at night.
This is the first main series game not to have Mater on the box art.
This is the first game where Lizzie and Snot Rod do not appear.