Beta Elements are anything that was intended to be in a game but was never added, or can be found in the coding but was left unused. Due to Cars: The Video Game (PC, Wii, 360), Cars: Mater-National Championship (PC, Wii, PS3, 360), Cars: Race-O-Rama (Wii, 360, PS3), and Cars 2: The Video Game (PC, PS3) being moddable, they may be found and listed. Cars 3: Driven to Win does have its voice clips extracted, so any dialogue related beta element will also be listed as well as unused characters that might be present.
Names[]
In the files, Gudmund and Koji are codenamed "Sven" and "Hiro" which has led people to speculate that they were intended to be called those names. The Wii version revealed that they had other names planed as well according to isolated cutscene audio. Although not codenamed by it in his files from Cars: The Video Game, very early data of Lenny suggests that he was originally going to be called "Larry". In Cars 2: The Video Game, Carla Veloso is called "racersonia" as her codename as Raoul CaRoule is called "racersebastian" as his codename. Even though not confirmed, it would seem like these were the original names for Carla and Raoul.
Voice Clips[]
The majority of Lightning's voice clips were re-used in Mater-National, but were re-enacted. Almost every quote that was not reused also has a re-enacted version that can be found in the files.
Some characters (Philip, Yuri, Fred, Tommy Joe, etc.) have voice clips that suggest that they were intended to appear driving around in exploration mode, but they never did.
In the Wii version of Mater-National, voice overs for the cutscenes can be found. Even ones where Gudmund and Koji were called by various different names. It also revealed that Fred, Sheriff, Flo, Lizzie, Philip, and Yuri were going to appear in the ending cutscene of the game.
Cars: Race-O-Rama has plenty of unused voice clips in all the versions of the game, even with certain .aud files even having a whole category dedicated to listing all the unused lines for a specific character. There also exists dialogue for a cut Rescue Squad Mater mini-game belonging to Mater, Lightning, Mia, and Tia.
In Cars 3: Driven to Win, there exists dialogue implying that Luigi was meant to be playable in the game from Sally, Mater, and Chick Hicks. The latter would have been used for the Chick's Picks segments after every race Luigi would be in. There are also voice clips for some characters commenting on any custom visuals said character would have.
Paint Jobs[]
Fillmore was intended to have a fully orange paintjob, but it was never added and left in the coding. Sarge was intended to have a "rock star" paintjob, but it was never created, and is only known because art of it can be found in the bonus content. One can also find the textures of Lewis, Judd, and Buford in the directory of Tommy Joe, despite now being separate characters. Also, the alternate paint jobs of Sheriff and Count Spatula from the first game can be found in their directories, despite them not being playable. Count Spatula's Paintjobs would also go unused one last time in Cars: Race-O-Rama.
Music[]
An unused remix of the "Radiator Springs Theme" can be found with the rest of the game's music (under name "UI_MUSIC.ogg"), and a very large number of non-licensed music from the first game that was not heard later in Mater-National can still be found in the coding.
Icons[]
In Mater-National, the icons of Lewis, Judd, Buford, and Ginormous from the first game can be found, despite new icons having been made for them. One can also find four Lizzie icons, all identical to one another, and a very mysterious icon for Stanley, both of which would appear to be for Cars: The Video Game. Mater-National-quality icons for Guido, Lizzie, and Frank can also be found, with the Guido icon later being used in Cars: Race-O-Rama. Various placeholders were also left in the coding, including those of Ramone, Luigi, Giovanni, and Philip (which depicts Lightning). Within Beta Screenshots, slightly different Mater, Fillmore, Sarge, Cletus, Buford, and Sulley icons have also been discovered. In the Wii version of Mater-National, a Sally icon made for the game seemed to imply Sally was to return here. However, she was scrapped and her Icon was left over.
In Cars: Race-O-Rama, Beta Student Icons were found and was suggested that these beta students would be more generic and all of them would look the same with the Doc Student using the Doc Hudson colors, and the Chick Student using the Chick Hicks Colors.
In Cars 2: The Video Game, Hugo and Trunkov's icons are present on both the Wii and PC versions of the game (due to the position tracker being different), however, on the files for the Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 versions of the game, they could be found in a higher quality than usual. Further implying that they were supposed to be playable but didn't made it into the final version.
Visuals[]
Very early screenshots of Mater-National show that once all 7 stickers were obtained, they were supposed to stay on Lightning. Rustbucket Races were supposed to be set at daytime, and Barry and Luigi were to be opponents in Stadium Race 4. Suspicious pictures from the first game have also been found, such as that McCoy was supposed to be a top five car on Los Angeles International Speedway, and that the race was only five laps long. This picture's taker and date are unknown, but some have put that the picture is a mod. Less mysterious shots which are confirmed beta can also often be found across the internet, and a few suggest that Mack was supposed to appear at his post in both exploration and in races.
In Cars: Race-O-Rama had various beta footage that can be found on the internet, such as several townies being present in Radiator Springs Speedway, and Randomized AI still being present in some builds of the game.
Name Strings[]
In Mater-National's localization files, a name string for Mack can be found, it may have simply never been removed, or he could have been meant to appear.
In Cars: Race-O-Rama, the names for most of the characters do not appear on the CSS or the results screen, so it's normally unknown what the names of Lightning's alt are normally. But in the game's localization files, we can see that their names normally are: Super Sport Lightning (Santa Carburera), Dirt Kickin' Lightning (Autovia), City Racer Lightning (Motoropolis), and Tuned-up Lightning (Speedway). Also in that same file are 4 characters that never appeared in the game at all: Gerald, Red, Frank, and Bessie.
Playable Data[]
A very large amount of Non-playable characters in Mater-National (these include Sheriff, Mia, Fletcher, Philip, Yuri, Lenny, Snot Rod (who is also seen in player's perspective in the intro), Lewis, Judd, Buford, and Count Spatula) have playable data in their directories, it can be assumed that they were played as during development to test animations, although some people speculate that they were actually intended to be playable. In addition, El Guapo has playable data in Cars: The Video Game, and The Crippler along with Ginormous, and Count Spatula, have playable data in Cars: Race-O-Rama and even has Select Screen triggers in the hardcode of all versions of the game.
In Cars 3: Driven to Win, Luigi is a background NPC character, however, there is some evidence that suggests he was meant to be playable, such as an "FE" folder, and the previously mentioned voice clips mentioning Luigi as if he was an opponent.
Races[]
In Mater-National, it has been found that two races, Rustbucket Grand Prix and Stadium Race 2, have data for a relay version of their normal races that did not appear in the final game. They are respectively called "Team Relay 6" and "Team Relay 13". Both races have successfully been added to the game using mods. And even though data for them did not initially exist, Relay Races have also been created out of all other races in the game.
There also is data for an event called Time Trial Races, where the player could practice on tracks.
In Cars: Race-O-Rama, there was going to be a "Street Race 2" in Radiator Springs. The track itself is basically Radiator Cap Circuit but without the shortcut.
Bessie in Radiator Springs[]
As seen in a beta gameplay video, Bessie, who appeared in deleted scenes from the first game and as a concept art in Mater-National Championship, was originally going to appear near the oil slick in Radiator Springs in Mater-National Championship, but was later removed from the final game for an unknown reason. Bessie's body texture can also be found in the game files. Later, Bessie has been successfully added back to Radiator Springs via modding.
Cheat Codes[]
In Mater-National's executable file, the unused cheat code, SCENZ4U, was found. While it is unknown what exactly the cheat code was going to do, according to its name, it was likely going to make cut scenes replayable, like in the first game.
Gallery[]
