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Cars Cast: Meet the Voice Actors Behind the Characters

Rev your engines and dive into the Cars cast that bring your favourite characters to life.

Cars follows rookie racer Lightning McQueen on the precipice of stardom. He’s full of confidence, pzazz and most importantly – speed.

He’s on his way to becoming the youngest Piston Cup champion ever, until his dreams are almost shattered when he falls out on to Route 66. It’s after this that McQueen finds Radiator Springs and our story begins…

But who’s behind the Cars cast you ask? Well push your ignition and slam your clutch, because you’re about to find out! 

Meet the Lightning McQueen Voice Actor

Meet the Lightning McQueen Voice Actor
  • Owen Wilson
  • IMDB
  • 18 November 1968
Meet the Lightning McQueen Voice Actor

When we first meet him, Lightning McQueen is a self-centred hot-shot race car who acts like the great manufacturer paved the very roads for him.

His passion for racing blinds him to his ego issues. However, through his friendship with Mater and his romance with Sally, McQueen develops and shows us his capacity for kindness and empathy. He’s a car that’s not only speed incarnate, but a good friend and true leader for Team Rust-eze. Ka-chow! 

Lightning McQueen is voiced by Owen Wilson, the “invisible A-lister” according to the Telegraph, who you’ll find everywhere and needs no introduction. He’s been a household name since the Shanghai Noon, which he followed up with Zoolander and Shanghai Knights.

 However, the highlights of Wilson’s career outside of Cars are probably the critically acclaimed The Royal Tenenbaums, The Budapest Hotel and the more recent hit series Loki . He’s an Oscar nominee for his screen-writing of The Royal Tenenbaums and a winner/nominee of countless other awards.

Even if you don’t recognise Owen Wilson from any of his films, you’ll probably have seen his, “Wow!” meme in circulation.

Meet the Tow Mater Voice Actor

Meet the Tow Mater Voice Actor
  • Daniel Lawrence Whitney
  • X
  • 17 February 1963
Meet the Tow Mater Voice Actor

Mater is a Jeep Grand Cherokee Hook’em, best friend of Lightning McQueen and centre of stage in Cars 2 – contesting McQueen for the title of main character. 

You’ll know Mater as someone who always sees the bright-side of a situation, has boundless excitability and his friends can always rely on him to crack a joke regardless of the situation.

Mater is voiced by Daniel Lawrence Whitney, professionally known as “Larry the Cable Guy.” Whitney started his career in radio at the start of the ’90s, then moved into stand-up where he made his name as Larry the Cable Guy – the character he created for his stand-up performances. He shot to fame with this name and took on gigs outside of the stand-up realm in character as Larry. 

Larry is very similar to Mater – he looks like a stereotypical redneck with a thick Southern accent and ideas associated with the US “Fly-over country.” His catchphrase is, “Git-r-Done!” which really encapsulates Larry.

Meet the Sally Carrera Voice Actor

Meet the Sally Carrera Voice Actor
  • Bonnie Hunt
  • X
  • 22 September 1961
Meet the Sally Carrera Voice Actor

Sally Carrera is the local defence attorney for radiator springs, a 2002 Porsche 911 Carrera from which she gets her name. She used to be an attorney in California but wasn’t enjoying the busy bustling life in the city. She came across Radiator Springs and fell in love with the quiet tight-knit town atmosphere, surrounded by the beautiful scenery of Arizona. 

Though you may know her better as Lightning McQueen’s girlfriend. She’s a crucial component in McQueen’s development as a character particularly in Cars 1.

Sally is voiced by Bonnie Hunt, who had been in the acting game since the ’90s and was well-known for her improvisational style with all the fun hiccups that came along with that. Many will recognise her as Sarah in Jumanji.

Hunt was no stranger to voice acting, nor Pixar before she scored the role as Sally. She had played roles in A Bug’s Life, Monster’s Inc and – after Cars – went on to lend her voice to Cars 2 & 3, Toy Story 3 & 4 and Monsters University, a healthy eight pixar titles for her esteemed résumé. 

Meet the Doc Hudson Voice Actor

Meet the Doc Hudson Voice Actor
  • Paul Newman
  • IMDB
  • 26 January 1925
Meet the Doc Hudson Voice Actor

Doc Hudson is the wise, old racing legend “Hudson Hornet” in hiding, who tries to give McQueen advice on racing. McQueen, stifled by his own ego, rejects the advice, and chastises him as an old man who couldn’t know anything.

McQueen eventually realises who Hudson is after seeing him blitz through the dirt track he was struggling on with ease. 

Paul Newman, the voice of Hudson, was a WWII veteran, having served in the navy, and national championship-winning racer himself. He didn’t land a role in Cars on this experience alone though, he had shown an interest in acting at an early age and his first credited role was dated fifty-three years before Cars (2006).

Newman earned his first Oscar nomination in 1958 with Cat on a Hot Tin Roof. Before he sadly passed in 2008, he performed the narration for Dale and The Meerkats. 

Meet the Mack Voice Actor

Meet the Mack Voice Actor
  • John Ratzenberger
  • X
  • 6 April 1947
Meet the Mack Voice Actor

Mack is where our story begins, he’s the selfless and loyal friend of Lightning McQueen, and truly devoted to his work of driving the “world’s fastest racecar.” Unfortunately, after being pushed to drive all night to California so that McQueen can make it early for his next race, Mack falls asleep and loses McQueen. He is absolutely elated when they’re reunited later in the film and promises to never let anything like that happen again, and to his word, he doesn’t make the mistake again in Cars 2 or 3.

McQueen isn’t angry with him, perhaps he’s thankful because without the incident he would have never ended up in Radiator Springs, he would have never met Mater or Sally and he would have never received Doc’s tutelage. 

Mack is voiced by John Ratzenberger, who also has a tonne of experience voice acting in Pixar films, but prior to getting into Pixar’s colourful worlds, the majority of his work was in live-action TV series and Film.

Ratzenberger’s first credit was in the Golden Globes nominated The Ritz, he topped that by being nominated for an Emmy in 1986 and he later won the TV Land “Legend award” in 2006. 

Meet the Ramone Voice Actor

Meet the Ramone Voice Actor
  • Cheech Marin
  • X
  • 13 July 1946
Meet the Ramone Voice Actor

Ramone is the chameleon of the cars. He changes his style like the wind blows and the river flows. Smooth, laid-back and cool, Ramone isn’t just trying to sell you a new paint job, he’s trying to sell you a lifestyle. His confidence in himself and his work is not unfounded, you can see for yourself what he cooks up for McQueen the night before his big race in Cars 1 and throughout the rest of the films. Ramone has actually been in Radiator Springs for over 50 years, so he’s seen many-a-paint-job in his day. 

Cheech Marin gifts Ramone his gravelly relaxed vibe. He’s an actor, writer-director and comedian with a wealth of experience and the accolades to back it up. He has 8 recorded wins and 18 nominations to date, most notable of which was his Grammy win in 1974 for Los Cochinos sandwiched between his 5 Grammy nominations.

Meet the Flo Voice Actor

Meet the Flo Voice Actor
  • Jenifer Lewis
  • Instagram
  • 25 January 1957
Meet the Flo Voice Actor

Ramone’s other half is Flo who perfectly matches his smooth relaxed vibe. She’s his greatest hype man and has been ever since the late 1950s, when she was working as a showgirl and was passing through Radiator Springs. She runs the V8 Cafe, which offers the “finest fuel in all fifty states” (fuel being the equivalent of food and drink for the anthropomorphised cars), quite a haughty claim for the small town of Radiator Springs.

Flo is voiced by Jenifer Lewis, one of the most reputable names in Hollywood, honoured with a Walk of Fame star in 2022. She’s appeared in a myriad of films since the 1980s, but has earned the title “The Mother of Black Hollywood” for her frequently landing roles as the mother-figure in black media, such as Veretta Childs in Girlfriends, Aunt Ruby in Juwanna Man, Nora Harper in Nora’s Hair Salon and more. 

Meet the Luigi Voice Actor

Meet the Luigi Voice Actor
  • Tony Shalhoub
  • IMDB
  • 9 October 1953
Meet the Luigi Voice Actor

Luigi is the bubbly italian and wheel connoisseur of Radiator Springs, who knows what you need better than you do yourself. He’s the owner of the business Luigi’s Casa Della Tires and we’re not sure how long he has been a resident in Radiator Springs but it’s certainly a long time. He kits out McQueen with some white-wall tires, which have long since fallen out of fashion in the world outside of Radiator Springs, as is noted by the announcers of the Piston Cup when McQueen arrives. 

It’s almost impossible to not know Tony Shalhoub’s face, unless you’re Gen Z or Gen Alpha of course, but then you’ve probably heard his voice somewhere anyways. He has won 20 awards and 52 nominations in his career, including four Primetime Emmys, a Golden Globe, several SAG awards and more. He is perhaps best known for his role as Adrian Monk in the highly acclaimed comedy series Monk.

Meet the Guido Voice Actor

Meet the Guido Voice Actor
  • Guido Quaroni
  • IMDB
  • 9 November 1967
Meet the Guido Voice Actor

With the fastest pit stops known to Car-kind, Guido is Team Rust-eze’s whole pit stop crew; he’s the tyre gunner, the tyre off and tyre on. He fulfils the role of twelve humans when compared to real-life pit stops, and four pit crew cars in the Cars universe. To top it off, he can complete these pit stops in record time, beyond some of the most experienced pit crews.

Guido takes his name from his voice actor, Guido Quaroni. Quaroni doesn’t have much experience as a voice actor, or an actor. In fact, his expertise primarily lies within 3D modelling and rigging, technical direction and software engineering. He racked up 20 years at Disney, working on various titles for the company eventually attaining the role of Supervising Technical Director in 2007 for the development of Toy Story 3, he then went onto become the Vice President of Software Research and Development in 2011.

As of 2024, Quaroni is the Senior Director of Engineering for Adobe’s 3D and Immersive team. 

 

Meet the Fillmore Voice Actor

Meet the Fillmore Voice Actor
  • George Carlin
  • IMDB
  • 22 June 2008
Meet the Fillmore Voice Actor

Fillmore is the hippie of Radiator Springs. He brews 100% organic fuel for his business called Fillmore’s Taste-in. Even Lightning McQueen indulges in his produce ever since his taster session and uses it during his races. Fillmore promotes their various benefits and claims the only reason it’s not mainstream is because of, “The government’s lies maaaan.” On the side, he tours with McQueen and the crew helping them out in the pits. 

George Carlin has been voice acting in animation since the 1990’s Bill & Ted’s Excellent Adventures, where he voiced the key-character Rufus.

Since then, his voice has toured the landscape of television and films. Notably, he was the narrator for various iterations of Thomas the Tank Engine from 1991-2017. He’s also cameo’d in The Simpsons, voiced the Architect in Scary Movie 3 and played Zugor in Tarzan 2.

Along the way George Carlin has scored eight Emmy nominations, won three Grammys for his comedy and holds a lifetime achievement award from the ACA. 

Meet the Sarge Voice Actor

Meet the Sarge Voice Actor
  • Paul Dooley
  • IMDB
  • 2 February 1928
Meet the Sarge Voice Actor

Sarge is the polar opposite of Fillmore, despite them being best-friends and neighbours. As his name suggests, he’s a military SUV who served in the US army during WWII, and is revving with patriotism. His morning ritual involves waking up in the morning to a recording of Reveille being played on a bugle and raising the USA flag. Sarge joins McQueen’s pit crew as an analyst and helps whip everyone into shape at every opportunity he gets. 

Paul Dooley who played Sarge, is a polymathic creative, who first started as a cartoonist for his local paper, which was some foreshadowing for how he would develop in future. After college, he again chased after the entertainment industry, travelling to New York and trying his hand at being a live performer, doing stand-up, playing as a Clown and Magician for birthday parties.

Dooley’s first big break was in 1965 when he made it onto the Broadway performance of The Odd Couple. His stand-up also got him a gig on The Tonight’s Show.

Since then, Dooley has acted and written for Film/TV, both physically and with his vocals, being markedly nominated for his role in Hairspray by SAG. 

Meet the Sheriff Voice Actor

Meet the Sheriff Voice Actor
  • Michael Wallis
  • IMDB
  • 7 October 1945
Meet the Sheriff Voice Actor
  • Sheriff
  • Grandfatherly
  • Passionate

The second character we meet when McQueen arrives in Radiator Springs is the Sheriff. He’s a 1949 Mercury police cruiser, so he’s been working a long time and has helped keep Radiator Springs’ streets clean ever since he arrived. He’s effective no-doubt about it and he takes on his role with pride, but that doesn’t make him harsh or unempathetic. The old car’s got plenty of kindness in his body, and is likely to sneak in a nap whenever he can to recoup energy in his old age. 

Despite his lack of experience, Michael Wallis brings the warm relatability of Sheriff to us – Cars is in fact his first ever credit for acting. Since then he’s only flexed his acting chops for Sheriff because his focus is on being an Emmy-winning documentarian, reporter, Pulitzer-nominated best-selling author, historian, and biographer focused on the American West.

The highway that Cars 1 is based around, Route 66, was actually the focus of his book called Route 66: The Mother Road which was used as a reference for the world-building and development of Cars 1. Disney apparently designed the Sheriff to look like Wallis himself. 

Dylan Langfield

By Dylan Langfield

Dylan is a creative writer, a psychology student at GCU and an esports enthusiast. He builds worlds, wracks brains and clicks heads. He has combined these skills to become a specialised cognitive science and video-games content writer.

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