Florida 500

The Florida 500 is a Piston Cup event in Cars 3. With the goal of defeating Jackson Storm and other rookies in the race, Lightning McQueen receives assistance from his racing instructor Cruz Ramirez during his training for the event.^[1] Cruz took Lightning's place halfway through the race, because Lightning decided he could not win it alone.

History[]

Jackson stays in front of the pack for the majority of the race, while Lightning McQueen steadily overtakes the other Next-Gens. When he overhears Sterling telling Cruz to leave, that made Lightning have an idea. In the middle of the race, a wreck on the track was caused by Cam Spinner, Lightning was involved in the wreck but was not colliding with other racers. Cam Spinner, George New-Win, Tim Treadless,Steve "Slick" LaPage, and J.P. Drive did not finish the race due to the damage in the wreck. Lightning knew he could not win this race alone, so he had Ramone paint the Rust-eze logo and number #95 on Cruz to follow race regulations.

Storm initially takes Cruz as a joke and therefore pays no attention to her. When the green flag drops, Cruz initially struggles, but eventually starts making up ground. As the race progresses, Cruz starts to move up to the front of the pack. When there are just 10 laps left, Cruz moves into the top ten. Jackson's crew chief warns him about this, but he does not care. When she moves into 3rd place, Storm recognizes that she is a threat to his winning streak, so he purposely slows down to catch up to Cruz, allowing Danny Swervez to take the lead. Storm tells her that she can play dress up all she wants, but she will never be a racer like the rest of the Next-Gens before retaking the lead from Danny. While in shock, Cruz falls back to 5th place as Flip Dover and Chase Racelott overtake her. Cruz tells McQueen that Storm is in her head, but McQueen tells her that she got in Storm's head because he would not have done that if she did not scare him, and that she really was a racer. During the final lap of the race, Ramirez is in 2nd place and continues drafting Storm while talking trash to him. Suddenly, Storm angrily had enough until he tries to prevent her from taking the lead by viciously pushing her up against the wall. Unfortunately for Storm, Cruz does a flip by freeing herself from his attack, passing him and crosses the finish line in 1st place with a quick sprint in a last second like doc did. After successfully making Jackson Storm finish 2nd and winning the race, Cruz is congratulated by Danny Swervez, Chase Racelott, Ryan "Inside" Laney and Bubba Wheelhouse. it is unknown what happened to Storm after the race.

Mcqueen and Cruz Florida 500 — Cruz and McQueen on the winners screen.

After the race, it is decided by race officials that both Cruz and McQueen are the winners, as McQueen started the race while Cruz finished it, with both racing with the number #95 as a tag team.

Race[]

Starting Positions[]

Restarting Positions[]

Finishing Positions[]

Track[]

Pit Road Positions[]

Trivia[]

Although Darrell Cartrip claims that there are 43 cars competing in this race, there are actually just 35.
Rich Mixon, Michael Rotor, Conrad Camber, Paul Conrev, Sheldon Shifter, Spikey Fillups, Noah Gocek, George New-Win, Will Rusch, M Fast Fong, and Cruz Ramirez made their debut in this race.
J.P. Drive, Steve "Slick" LaPage, Cam Spinner, George New-Win, and Tim Treadless all did not finish the race due to having been badly damaged in the crash.
After the crash, Ryan "Inside" Laney disappears for the rest of the race after taking the hit from Tim Treadless, only reappearing at the end to congratulate Cruz on her win. When all of the racers went into their pit stops during the pause of the race, Ryan is also seen appearing to his pit stop looking alright, but weirdly, did not appear for the rest of the race.
Although J.P. Drive was badly damaged and was unable to continue racing after the crash, he was, weirdly, still racing when Cruz Ramirez was going into the pits. This is likely due to an animation goof.
- The same thing happens with Steve "Slick" LaPage, in the same scene. This is likely due to an animation goof.
The Florida 500 is possibly based on the Daytona 500, as both races are at the start of the seasons in the Piston Cup and NASCAR in February.
The Florida 500 has 500 laps. This might be inaccurate because in real life, the Daytona 500 has 200 laps.
This is the first race since his debut in Dinoco 400 at the Copper Canyon Speedway that Jackson Storm had lost. As he just about came in second place at the end of the final lap at the last second.

References[]

↑ Sneak peek: 'Cars 3' zooms ahead with new character Cruz Ramirez

[1] Sneak peek: 'Cars 3' zooms ahead with new character Cruz Ramirez

[1]

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