On Saturday, March 8, 2025, Pixar Chief Creative Officer Pete Docter and Imagineer Michael Hundgen shared about the future of Pixar’s Cars in the Disney theme parks. As was announced at D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event, a new Cars-themed area is going to be found in Frontierland at Walt Disney World’s Magic Kingdom.
The main attraction for this area is an off-road race. This will take the inhabitants of Radiator Springs out into the frontier. It will give guests the chance to experience a whole new kind of race from the world of Pixar’s Cars. Docter and Hundgen shared a bit about the development process for this attraction, specifically the ride vehicles that will be used.
“Our primary goal is creating an emotional experience for our guests,” Hundgen told the crowd. “For this Cars attraction, we need to invent a new type of ride vehicle. No one builds these in a factory because it has to do so much more than just carrying you from one place to another. We have to create a car that conveys a feeling when you ride in it.”
For research, the team took a trip to the Arizona desert where they experienced real off-road vehicles to see what it is like to drive over rocky terrain. It was shared during the panel that these are things that Lightning McQueen and Mater haven’t experienced before. Things like racing over rocky terrain, ascending to mountain peaks, and dodging around geysers. The team took all of these real things and then are working on putting a Cars spin on it.
The next step was that Imagineers worked with a motocross company to build a real dirt track. They would race around on this and gather data to work on how to create the ride vehicles that will eventually carry guests as they race through the frontier.
“We’re using a customized production vehicle,” Hundgen continued. “It has sensors all over it, and we’re taking it for test drives on our dirt track to gather data on how the vehicle responds to different terrain. This is where we turn that feeling we want into real-world engineering,” Michael explained.
The duo also shared what the vehicles will look like:
As can be seen in the concept art, these vehicles look like they are ready to race off-road and also have a Pixar feel to them! This was with the help of the team from Pixar Animation Studios. Docter, when sharing the concept sketches, also shared that they are creating “new race car personalities for this attraction. Each vehicle in the ride will have its own name and number, just like a real race.”
A video of the whole process was shared as well:
There are plenty of other announcements that came out of the SXSW panel on Saturday morning. This included updates from the worlds of Star Wars, Marvel, and also Pixar. Daps Magic is covering them all so be sure to subscribe to the mailing list, social media, and YouTube to not miss any of them!
What do you think of what you are seeing of this new off-road attraction?? Are you excited to visit the frontier with your favorite friends from Cars and go on a wild off-road race? Share your thoughts and opinions in the comments below!
