Cars

Cars

Developers
	Rainbow Studios
Windows	Beenox Shift
macOS (OS X)	Beenox Shift
Publishers
	THQ
Russia	Noviy Disk
Digital	Disney Interactive Studios
Release dates
Windows	June 6, 2006
macOS (OS X)	June 6, 2006
Reception
Metacritic	73
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Modes	Singleplayer, Multiplayer
Pacing	Real-time
Perspectives	Third-person
Controls	Direct control
Genres	Racing, Open world
Vehicles	Automobile, Street racing, Track racing
Art styles	Cartoon
Themes	Contemporary, North America
Series	Cars

Cars
Subseries of Pixar
Cars	2006
Cars: Radiator Springs Adventures	2006
Cars Mater-National Championship	2007
The World of Cars Online	2008
Cars Toon: Mater's Tall Tales	2010
Cars 2	2011
Disney Planes	2013
Cars: Fast as Lightning	2014

Warnings

The macOS (OS X) release of this game does not work on macOS Catalina (version 10.15) or later due to the removal of support for 32-bit-only apps.

Cars is a singleplayer and multiplayer third-person racing and open world game in the Cars series.

The PC version is based on the Xbox version, which lacks the graphical changes seen in the later released Xbox 360 or Wii versions. Certain technical aspects from the PlayStation 2 release (like more pronounced bloom and reflections on characters) are missing as well.

General information

World of Cars Wiki

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		SecuROM v7.21.0012 DRM 2 CDs for the USA release while the UK and "Action Pack 3 Games In 1" bundle with Ratatouille & The Incredibles are on one.
Steam		All the promotional trailers included in the extras are missing, with the English Steam version having no videos at all. Select languages, like French and German, have the extras, some in their respective languages with other languages, like Spanish, include the deleted scenes, but not the movie clips.

A demo is available, containing the first race of Story Mode.

Version differences

The Steam version doesn't support Intel integrated graphics, only AMD or NVIDIA GPUs. Playing with Intel graphics crashes the game; see Game crashes when starting Story Mode for fixes.

Support for video playback overall is broken on all Steam releases.

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

Delete video files
Delete the folder <path-to-game>\Data\AppStart.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\THQ\Cars\Settings\
macOS (OS X)
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/331160/pfx/

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\THQ\Cars\Save\
macOS (OS X)
Steam Play (Linux)	<SteamLibrary-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/331160/pfx/

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
OneDrive		Requires enabling backup of the Documents folder in OneDrive on all computers.
Steam Cloud

Video

Video settings

Graphics feature	State	WSGF	Notes
Widescreen resolution			HUD is stretched with the camera zooming in slightly closer than the original 4:3 fullscreen ratio. Game cursor also doesn't scale when increasing resolution.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen			Playing the game at certain ratios other than 16:9 or 4:3 may stretch/condense the 3D render.
4K Ultra HD
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Borderless fullscreen windowed		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		Up to 4x MSAA.
High-fidelity upscaling
Vertical sync (Vsync)		Can be forced off through the graphics card control panel.
60 FPS		Frame rate is capped at 30 FPS. Can be increased to 60 by replacing the cars.exe file with this modified executable file, though can cause issues with physics.
120+ FPS		Can be increased to an arbitrary value with a hex editor and this hack in the retail version, though can cause issues with physics. Video tutorial.
High dynamic range display (HDR)		See the glossary page for potential alternatives.
Ray tracing (RT)
Color blind mode		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.

Input

• 

  Keyboard settings for "Driving controls"

• 

  Keyboard settings for "Game controls"

• 

  Controller settings for "Driving controls"

• 

  Controller settings for "Game controls"

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse sensitivity		Mouse is not used during gameplay.
Mouse acceleration
Mouse input in menus		The cursor is a wrench that turns when clicked.
Keyboard and mouse prompts
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support
Controller remapping
Controller sensitivity		Analogue input only applies to steering and camera; acceleration and braking are digital only.
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.

DirectInput-compatible controllers

PlayStation controllers		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.

Nintendo controllers

Other controller(s)		Generic DirectInput controllers are supported.
Additional button prompts

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Input prompt override
Haptic feedback		Retail only.
Digital movement support		Vehicle steering and camera is analogue.
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Audio

• 

  Sound settings in menu

• 

  Sound settings in hub

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Master, Music, Effects, Engine, Voice
Surround sound		Up to 7.0 output with DirectSound3D restoration software.
Subtitles		Only appear in cutscenes and can't be toggled.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
EAX support		DirectSound3D
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Czech				Retail only. For Steam version follow this guide
Danish
Dutch
Finnish
French
German
Italian
Korean				Region locked; retail only.
Norwegian
Polish
Portuguese				Region locked; retail only.
Brazilian Portuguese				Download of the digital version of the translation without the region locking from the retail version by OAleex e Big Boss is available here.
Russian				Region locked on all retail versions; patch available for Steam.
Spanish
Swedish

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Native	Players	Notes
Local play		2	Versus Split-screen; graphical fidelity is reduced.
LAN play
Online play

VR support

3D modes	State	Notes
vorpX		G3D User created game profile, see vorpx forum profile introduction.

Issues unresolved

These issues are known to only occur on the Steam version of the game.^{[citation needed]}

Visual bugs

There are harmless visual issues carried over from the Xbox version, such as menu icons being in the wrong layer order, and numerous instances of Z-fighting, including Mack's eyelids and DJ's stereo system.

Profile Corrupted

Profile here being "damaged".

Some users have reported that their profile either is repeatably corrupted or crashes when attempting to load the profile after relaunching. The cause is unknown and as of yet have no main solution for it.

Change the Compatibility to Windows XP Service Pack 2 and run it as Administrator

Change the Compatibility to Windows 98/ME with no administrator access

Issues fixed

Game crashes when starting Story Mode

This is a bug that occurs when playing the game with Intel graphics cards because they aren't supported by the Steam version.

Change anti-aliasing to 4x

Use DXVK

Use replacement Scenes.pak

Movies unwatchable

In the Steam version, the unlockable movie clips cannot be viewed, due to the Steam version not including the "Movies" folder that the Retail version has.

Download the Movies folder

Download the archive from here; this includes the folder, as well as a NoDVD exe, which is needed, as it is incompatible with the Steam executable. Copy Cars.exe to <path-to-game> and the Movies folder to <path-to-game>\Data Start the game, select the Bonus Content option from the main menu, go to Videos, then to either Deleted scenes, Movie clips or Extras, and buy one of the clips, or use the cheat code WATCHIT to unlock them all.

Camera auto-center bug

This is a cross-platform bug where "Tractor Tipping" causes a permanent bug. This disables the camera auto-centre, ignoring any settings for it, with the save file infected by it.

Create and use a new profile
This bug only affects the save file that "Tractor Tipping" was played on; new and other save files are unaffected.

Never play tractor tipping
This is an optional minigame and is uneeded to finish the game.

Other information

API

Technical specs	Supported	Notes
Direct3D	9

Executable	PPC	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)				Intel support requires an update.

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Cutscenes	Bink Video	Logos, deleted scenes, and movie clips

Higher difficulty

When creating a profile, set the name to CHMPION

System requirements

Windows

macOS (OS X)

Windows
	Minimum		Recommended
Operating system (OS)	ME, 2000, XP		Vista
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium III 800 MHz AMD Athlon XP		Pentium IV 1.2 GHz
System memory (RAM)	256 MB		512 MB
Storage drive (HDD/SSD)	500 MB		1.2 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce 2 ATI Radeon 7500 32 MB of VRAM DirectX 9.0c compatible		Nvidia GeForce 3 ATI Radeon 8500 64 MB of VRAM
Sound (audio device)	16-bit DirectX 9.0c compatible
Other	8X DVD-ROM drive

Recommended RAM requirement is for split-screen play.

macOS (OS X)
	Minimum		Recommended
Operating system (OS)	10.3		10.4
Processor (CPU)	PowerPC G4 1.2 GHz		PowerPC G5 2.0 GHz
System memory (RAM)	256 MB		512 MB
Storage drive (HDD/SSD)	1.2 GB		1.4 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce 2 ATI Radeon 7500 32 MB of VRAM		Nvidia GeForce FX 5200 ATI Radeon 9200 64 MB of VRAM
Other	8X CD drive