Los Angeles International Speedway

The speedway during the Piston Cup season.

The Los Angeles International Speedway, in California, is where the tiebreaker race in Piston Cup history took place in Cars after Lightning McQueen, Chick Hicks and The King tied each other at the Motor Speedway of the South. Although Chick had won the race along with his 1st Piston Cup title, his fans turned on him for cheating: he had deliberately caused The King to spin out in a horrible crash. There was an attendance of nearly 200,000 cars.

In Cars 3, Los Angeles International Speedway is where the final race of the 2017 Piston Cup season took place as seen in the beginning. By then, most of the veteran racers have been replaced by next-generation rookies, though a few are still present at the time. In the race, Lightning does well, but he is unable to get past Jackson Storm, who leads most of the time. Lightning manages to take the lead after a fast pit stop, only to be past by Jackson Storm again. Trying to catch up, Lightning decides to push himself, which leads to him sliding out of control and tumbling down the track. It would take four months for him to recover.

Trivia

• The track is inspired by the Auto Club Speedway.
• The venue for the Piston Cup tiebreaker race is a conglomeration of the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum, the Arroyo Seco in Pasadena where the Rose Bowl is located, and the Auto Club Speedway in Fontana, all of them located in California.
• This is also where Lightning McQueen has a terrible crash in Cars 3 when pushing himself too hard to catch up against Jackson Storm.
• The Scoring Pylon (showing numbers 43, 86 and 95), along with the one at the Motor Speedway of the South, is taken from the Indianapolis Motor Speedway.
• Despite Darrell mentioning that the final race had an attendance of 200,000 spectactors, there were really only 100,000 cars in production terms plus an additional 1,500 in the aisles and infields. This is still larger than the 60,000 cars at Motor Speedway and 700 in its infields. Also, 13,000 cars are entering the stadium to find seats.
• In Cars 3 during the Los Angeles 500, it is implied that Lightning McQueen is the last veteran still competing. However, there are actually ten other veterans in the race, who are Reb Meeker, Buck Bearingly, Brian Spark, Rev-N-Go Racer, Ralph Carlow, Dino Draftsky, Rev Roadages, Darren Leadfoot, Ponchy Wipeout, and Murray Clutchburn. They all get replaced by next-generation racers sometime between the events of this race and the Florida 500.

Gallery

Some beautiful panoramas

Los Angeles International Speedway as seen in Cars 3