Radiator Springs Grand Prix is the first event In Cars history, as it is the first event in Cars: The Video Game, which released three days before the movie.
Story Mode
The cut scene starts similarly to the Cars movie from 2006, where Lightning is dreaming and says "I... am... speed. 1 winner, 4 losers.", while the opponents are racing in the background. The race is then shown to start as Mater says we have both familiar faces and some new guys (Fletcher). Then Lightning comes in and Mater says to get this show on the road.
In the end scene, Sally is shown waking Lightning up, the whole race was a dream all along. Sally says he needs some competition, some new cars (Fletcher, El Guapo, Gerald, Papo) are at Flo's, and that Doc is waiting for him at Willy's Butte. Lightning then goes to see Mack, telling him he's ready to win the Piston Cup, but Mack says he must win enough events and races to be able to go to each Piston Cup Race. Lightning then says "Ka-Chow!" and Mack says he'll take that as an okey-dokey.
Track
From the main road, take a left past the courthouse and take another left down toward the fences of Sarge's Compound. After the short straightaway, make a sharp curve through the Drive-in Theater back down the main road to the finish line.
Trivia
- In arcade mode, the fastest CPU car will no matter what be Mater, despite him not competing in the Story Mode.
- Although Fletcher appears in the story mode event, he won't appear in arcade mode.
- The race is a dream, but all faces in dreams must be faces that the one asleep has seen before, even if just a stranger. Lightning has not met Fletcher yet, meaning it would be impossible for him to appear until after Radiator Cap Circuit has been completed.
- On the PC version, all daytime Radiator Springs Races will crash 100% of the time if the player is using a low-end PC. As this race is one of them, this means that players with low-end PCs cannot play the story mode at all.
- Sally's Sunshine Circuit later uses almost the same track as this race, only backwards and with one turn slightly different.
- Beta pictures in the guide of the PC version show that El Guapo was supposed to be an opponent in this race, though presumably in arcade mode.
- In the cut scene, Sally is shown ahead of Doc, but in the race, Doc is faster than Sally.
- The "Ka-Chow!" Lightning shouts in the end scene is actually one of his in-game voice clips, and is the clip used on the "dialogue" in the sound options.
- When replaying this event and viewing the cut scene again, a new hidden scene will play at the beginning, showing Lightning pulling over at one of the cones at the Cozy Cone Motel and dreaming of this race.