Lightning McQueen is celebrating 20 years on the road, and Disney and Pixar are marking the occasion from the multiplex all the way to Magic Kingdom. The original Cars returns to theaters starting September 4, new anniversary popcorn buckets are rolling out at AMC, Regal, and Cinemark, and construction on Magic Kingdom’s own Cars-themed land, Piston Peak National Park, keeps moving forward in Frontierland. Here’s every Cars movie in order, what the new theater merch looks like, and where things stand on Piston Peak.
The franchise kicked off with Cars on June 9, 2006, introducing hotshot rookie Lightning McQueen and the town of Radiator Springs, and earning an Academy Award nomination for Best Animated Feature along the way. Cars 2 followed on June 24, 2011, sending McQueen and Mater overseas for the World Grand Prix and a spy plot built around Mater. Cars 3 rounded out the trilogy on June 16, 2017, with McQueen sidelined by a new generation of racers and teaming up with trainer Cruz Ramirez to get back on track. Disney+ added the series Cars on the Road in 2022, following McQueen and Mater on a cross-country road trip, plus a long run of Cars Toon shorts covering everything from Tokyo to the moon. Looking ahead, Cars: Lightning Racers was confirmed for 2027, bringing Owen Wilson and Larry the Cable Guy back to Radiator Springs alongside a new cast of characters and a Sheryl Crow song that debuted at D23 2026.
Cars Returns To Theaters For Its 20th Anniversary – To mark two decades since its debut, the original Cars is heading back to select theaters starting September 4, 2026, with tickets already on sale. The timing lines up with Lightning McQueen Day on September 5 (9/5), a reference to McQueen’s number 95, itself a nod to 1995, the release year of the first Toy Story. It’s a rare chance to see Radiator Springs on the big screen again, and theater chains are treating it like a full merchandise event rather than a quiet re-release.
New Cars Popcorn Buckets Hit AMC, Regal, and Cinemark – We track every theater popcorn bucket drop over on our Movie Theater Popcorn Buckets hub, and the Cars 20th anniversary lineup is one of the bigger multi-chain rollouts we’ve seen this year. Cinemark has the most product: an 85-ounce Lightning McQueen bucket shaped like the character himself for $49.95, limited to three per customer, plus a second bucket featuring both McQueen and Mater for $29.95. Both are sold through Cinemark’s online shop as well as in theaters.
Regal is carrying a similar Lightning McQueen race car bucket at participating locations, alongside a Piston Cup sipper that comes with a large drink, both going on sale September 3 while supplies last. AMC has its own three-piece lineup arriving the same week, a Piston Cup with a fountain drink, a cup with a character topper and fountain drink, and a Lightning McQueen popcorn collectible that comes filled with popcorn. Official AMC pricing hadn’t been confirmed as of this writing, but based on comparable anniversary drops it should land in a similar range to the other chains. As always, availability varies by location and these are while-supplies-last items, so don’t wait too long if you want one.
The Future Of The Cars Franchise
A new show, Cars: Lightning Racers, was announced at the “Disney Jr. Let’s Play!” fan celebration, with Owen Wilson and Larry the Cable Guy set to continue their roles as Lightning McQueen and Mater. The show debuts in 2027, returning to Radiator Springs to reunite fans with familiar favorites while introducing a fun new generation of cars. It will also feature new music, including Sheryl Crow’s “Built to Last,” which she debuted at D23: The Ultimate Disney Fan Event 2026.
Piston Peak National Park Is Taking Shape at Magic Kingdom – While Lightning McQueen laps back into theaters, his world is also under construction in Florida. Piston Peak National Park is the Cars-themed land replacing the Rivers of America, Tom Sawyer Island, and the Liberty Square Riverboat in Magic Kingdom’s Frontierland, part of what Disney has called the largest expansion in the park’s history. We’ve been following the build closely, including a recent construction update showing a new crane and steady progress on the wall pours and dirt work near Haunted Mansion.
At D23 2026, Imagineers Michael Hundgen and Jason Grandt confirmed both of Piston Peak’s attractions by name. Cars Ridge Run Rally is the land’s centerpiece, an off-road racing attraction using a new ride vehicle system built to actually respond to the terrain rather than simulate it, climbing toward a snowy summit before finishing through a geyser field. Miss Fritter’s Daredevil Spin-Along is the second attraction, a family-friendly spinner built around the demolition derby champion from Cars 3, featuring a school-bus-sized animatronic Miss Fritter. The land’s buildings are being designed in a National Park Service-inspired style called Parkitecture, meant to blend the visitor lodge and Ranger HQ into the surrounding scenery. Disney has not announced an opening date yet, but the pace of construction suggests vertical building could ramp up before long.
Our Take – There’s something fitting about McQueen heading back to theaters the same year Piston Peak starts to look real in Frontierland. The original movie is basically a story about slowing down and paying attention to a place, and that’s not a bad way to think about what’s happening to that corner of Magic Kingdom right now. Frontierland as longtime guests know it is genuinely going away, and that’s worth being honest about rather than glossing over. But between the attraction names, the Parkitecture direction, and Miss Fritter getting her own ride, this is shaping up to be more than a reskin. If you’ve got a chance to catch Cars on the big screen this month, it’s a good excuse to revisit Radiator Springs before Piston Peak opens its own version of it.
Here’s Everything To Know Before Cars Returns To the Big Screen This Week
