Cars Watch Order (Release Order)Recommended
0 / 8 watchedFilms and shorts in release order, with the Planes spinoffs in place.
- 1 Cars The original. McQueen lands in Radiator Springs.
- 2 Mater's Tall Tales (2008-2012) 11 shorts collected as Cars Toons. Tall tales set between Cars and Cars 2.
- 3 Cars 2 Spy story with Mater in the lead.
- 4 Tales from Radiator Springs (2013-2014) 4 shorts. Slice-of-life stories set after Cars 2.
- 5 Planes DisneyToon spinoff about crop duster Dusty. Optional.
- 6 Planes: Fire and Rescue Second Planes film, this time about firefighting. Optional.
- 7 Cars 3 McQueen trains Cruz Ramirez. End of the trilogy.
- 8 Cars on the Road (2022) Pixar miniseries on Disney+, 9 episodes. Road trip after Cars 3.
About Cars
Pixar's Cars trilogy follows Lightning McQueen from rookie to mentor across Cars (2006), Cars 2 (2011) and Cars 3 (2017). Around the films sit two short series collected as Cars Toons, plus two Planes spinoff films from DisneyToon Studios. The story continues on Disney+ with Cars on the Road (2022).
Release order is the easiest path, since the shorts slot between the films where they premiered. Planes and its sequel are optional side stories set in the same world. Watch Cars on the Road last; it follows Cars 3.
Good to know
Mater's Tall Tales ran 2008 to 2012 (11 shorts); Tales from Radiator Springs ran 2013 to 2014 (4 shorts). A fifth Radiator Springs short, To Protect and Serve, was announced but never released. DisneyToon Studios closed in 2018, so no further Planes films are expected. No new Cars entry had been dated as of September 2026.
