Los Angeles 500

The Los Angeles 500 is an event in Cars 3 that's held at the Los Angeles International Speedway. It is the final race of the 2016 Piston Cup season. At the race, Lightning McQueen crashes trying to beat Jackson Storm.

Before The Start

Before the race starts, Mcqueen looks around to see many of his friends gone, replaced with next generation racers. He then overhears his friend Brick Yardley get fired by the owner of Vitoline. McQueen attempts to ask his friend Bobby Swift if he knows what's happening with Brick, but coming out of his garage is a next generation racer, not Bobby. McQueen figures out that it's not Bobby just as he drives off, saying his name is Danny.

The Race

As the practice lap is about to end, McQueen realizes that all of his friends might be gone. Jackson Storm goes up to him and says "Hey champ, where'd all your friends go?" before driving up into the front of the poll positions. Mcqueen was now determined to beat Storm. Just as the green flag dropped, Mcqueen gave everything he got. He had a bit of trouble against some next gens early on in the race. Towards the middle of the race, Mcqueen had overtaken almost every next gen. Eventually, he was in second, behind just one more, Jackson Storm.

The Crash

When there is just 40 laps left, Jackson Storm and Lightning McQueen make their way into the pit row. McQueen urges Guido to change his tires fast, as he had to get back into the race before Jackson did. Just as Guido finishes changing his last tire, Mcqueen rushes out of the pits while Jackson is still in them, allowing him to take the lead. However, it doesn't take long for Jackson to catch up to Mcqueen. When he does, he tells Mcqueen that he had a good run and to enjoy his retirement as he speeds past him, retaking the lead. McQueen watches in shock as Storm drives further and further away, in the process Daniel Swervez and Chase Racelott also overtake Mcqueen. McQueen becomes fed up with losing and pushes himself hard trying to catch up to Jackson, Daniel, and Chase. Eventually, it's too much for him to handle, and his back tire blows out, causing him to crash into a wall. Tim Treadless and the Next Gen Easy Idle racer watch in shock as McQueen goes airborn. After doing a barrel roll across the track multiple times and suffering serious damage, he stops. Ambulances, pitties, and his Radiator Springs pals rush toward him and he is removed from the race, while Jackson Storm wins the race, and the 2016 Piston Cup.

Finishing Positions

1. 20 - Jackson Storm
2. 19 - Daniel Swervez
3. 24 - Chase Racelott
4. 28 - Tim Treadless
5. 15 - Unnamed Next-Gen Easy Idle Racer
6. 11 - Unnamed Next-Gen Combustr Racer
7. 68 - H.J. Hollis

Trivia

• Though it's implied that Lightning Mcqueen is the last veteran racer still standing at this race, there are actually 6 other veteran racers that were still standing. Reb Meeker, Buck Bearingly, Brian Spark , Rev-N-Go Racer, Ralph Carlow, and an unnamed Clutch Aid stock car that's possibly Kevin Shiftright. All 6 of them were replaced with Next-Gen racers in the time after this race and before the Florida 500.
• An early version of this scene was shown at the Detroit Auto Show in January 2017. The Detroit version has slight dialouge, audio, and visual differences from the version of this scene shown in the actual movie five months later. For example, the Detroit version showed McQueen in his Cars 3 paintjob instead of his Rust-eze paintjob.

There are 35 cars that compete in this race, 7 stock cars and 28 Next Gens.