The World of Cars Online
The World of Cars Online was an online computer game, previously available to play on the Disney Official Website.
![](/images/thumb/8/86/The_World_of_Cars_Online.png/250px-The_World_of_Cars_Online.png)
The game was under development with Open Beta, which launched on March 1, 2010. There was a sneak peek of the World of Cars Online called the Test Track which started in October 2008 and ended in November 2009 to make way for Open Beta.
According to the trailer, the game was originally going to open in Summer 2009, but due to some contrasts, it was postponed to 2010. When the game finally opened on June 29th 2010, each car was awarded 2,010 coins, a founders plaque, and an Open Beta plaque (For users that joined during the Open Beta event).
In January 2012, Disney announced the game would be closing, and finally closed in February 8, 2012.
Gameplay
Players can create an account, and then create a car - the player can choose their color, name it, and choose a racing number. Once their car has been created, they can go into the counties of Radiator Springs - the town itself, Willy's Butte, Fillmore's Fields and Redhood Valley, the entrance to Tailfin Pass (added later). There the player can roam around while chatting with others, collecting coins, and roaming freely.
In race mode, the player can race with other people currently playing the game, or just practicing with the Radiator Springs townsfolk. Winning these will earn the player race trophies, which can be collected to move on to bigger races, if the player is a sponsored car.
If the player is sponsored, which costs five dollars a month, they now have access to tons of extra things - unlimited customization in Ramone's House of Body Art, access to Piston Cup races, and to be a reserve driver for big shot race cars like Todd Marcus and Rusty Cornfuel.
Characters
- Lightning McQueen
- Mater
- Sally Carrera
- Doc Hudson (until summer 2011)
- Ramone
- Flo
- Luigi
- Guido
- Sheriff
- Chick Hicks
- Mack
- Fillmore
- Sarge
- Lizzie
- Red
- Boost
- DJ
- Wingo
- Snot Rod
- Tractors
- Frank
- Todd Marcus
- Floyd Mulvihill
- Rusty Cornfuel
- Slider Petrolski
- Lee Revkins
- Ruby "Easy" Oaks
- Johnny Blamer
- Brush Curber
- Haul Inngas
- Kevin Shiftright
- Sage VanDerSpin
- Greg Candyman
Tracks
There were 10 tracks which users were allowed to race on. Only sponsored cars could race in Piston Cup races.
Carburetor County
Pro Tracks (Piston Cup)
- Tailgator Speedway
- Big Heartland Speedway
- Backfire Canyon Speedway
- Petroleum City Super Speedway
- Motor Speedway of the South
- Los Angeles International Speedway
When you race you get race points and money. A list of them is here-
Carburetor County Speedway | Willy's Butte Rally | Fillmore's Field Rally | Twistin' Tailfin Trails | |||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Doc Hudson's Training Excercise | Lightning McQueen's Racing Series | Doc Hudson's Training Excercise | Lightning McQueen's Racing Series | Doc Hudson's Training Excercise | Lightning McQueen's Racing Series | Doc Hudson's Training Excercise | Lightning McQueen's Racing Series | |
1st place | 320 coins and 640 racing points | 336 coins and 672 racing points | 200 coins and 400 racing points | 210 coins and 420 racing points | 400 coins and 800 racing points | 420 coins and 840 racing points | 480 coins and 960 racing points | 504 coins and 1,008 racing points |
2nd place | 240 coins and 480 racing points | 252 coins and 504 racing points | 150 coins and 300 racing points | 157 coins and 315 racing points | 300 coins and 600 racing points | 315 coins and 630 racing points | 360 coins and 720 racing points | 378 coins and 756 racing points |
3rd place | 160 coins and 320 racing points | 168 coins and 336 racing points | 100 coins and 200 racing points | 105 coins and 210 racing points | 210 coins and 420 racing points | 240 coins and 480 racing points | 240 coins and 480 racing points | 252 coins and 504 racing points |
4th place | 80 coins and 160 racing points | 84 coins and 168 racing points | 50 coins and 100 racing points | 52 coins and 105 racing points | 120 coins and 240 racing points | 126 coins and 252 racing points | 120 coins and 240 racing points | 126 coins and 252 racing points |
Race points
Race points were made to unlock the Piston Cup races. You could unlock all the Piston Cup races, but they would still be locked, as you still had to beat them in order of race points to race the next one. After you beat Los Angeles International Speedway you will win the Piston Cup trophy, which you can use as an item in your backyard.
- 60,000 points - Tailgator Speedway
- 200,000 points - Big Heartland Speedway
- 380,000 points - Backfire Canyon Speedway
- 640,000 points - Petroleum City Super Speedway
- 1,000,000 points - Motor Speedway of the South
- 1,000,001 points - Los Angeles International Speedway
Beta elements
During the Test Track
- There were only two races. the Carburetor County Speedway, and Twistin' Tailfin Track (renamed Twistin' Tailfin Trails after the game opened). There was also the Carburetor County Practice Track, where you could race alone and practice. These races (except Practice Track) had three levels: Easy, Medium and Hard.
- Races had leaderboard, each one different, depending on the track and difficulty chosen. There was a "Fastest Today" leaderboard, that was refreshing after 1 hour. And on the top appeared the "#1 All Time". Leaderboard only considered the fastest time in the full race.
- Twistin' Tailfin Track was locked. The only way to unlock it was using a race code, which could be found when you bought Mattel Die-casts from the Race-O-Rama series, in the back of the tickets with the name of the car. The race codes were all the same, depending on the car you bought.
- Mater had dialogues before you were starting a race.
- You had unlimited power-ups (3) for boost and oil. If you used them, they would fill again the next day.
Trailer beta content
- You could collect Bonus Points in the main town, and there was a "Fans" section. The reasons for these features are unknown.
- During a race, there was only one type of car. They didn't had eyes and mouth and the racing surface was very basic. The map showed other racers far from the track. This was probably a very early design and gameplay of the game.
- Tractor Tippin' was planned, but never added into the game.
- A mini-game called "Red's Firefighting Game!", where you could put out the fire from some buildings was never added.
- There was a different surface, where the map was on the top right corner, looking like consoles games map, and would also consider CPU (movie characters) location, unlike the final version, where only user players were considered. There were three colors to identify players, red (for users), green (friends), and blue (the player).
- Radiator Springs residents could be seen driving around. In the final version only Red and Doc had this feature.
- There were cones in the main street. The purpose for this is unknown.
- Red and Radiator Springs were poorly made. Red was missing details, and Radiator Springs had only one generic building replacing all the original buildings from the town (probably just to show the gameplay). Cozy Cone Motel didn't have their fountain, and players could drive on the grass.
- Colors that were never added into the final version were seen during the trailer. Also, some avatars didn't had a number, as sponsors replaced them.
- Tractors were different, and they didn't had sounds, instead they would write their actions ("Zzzzzzzz...").
- Some never released features for the backyard were seen. You could add Radiator Springs buildings into your backyard, make it bigger, add roads and more.
- The domain was "www.worldofcars.com", in the final version the site's domain was changed to "worldofcars.go.com".
Closing
The World of Cars Online was closed on February 8, 2012, just 9 days after another MMOG, LEGO Universe, closed. Disney is expected to refund up to $8,000 in membership fees that cannot be concluded with game time.
The game never picked up as much as other Disney MMORPG's. The total member count was about 60,000. The majority of those members are inactive and unpaid. Many gamers began playing during Open Beta and left once payment was required to continue.
Many miss World of Cars Online. But, some people have asked, "Will you make a World of Cars 2?" Disney said that they wouldn't, and that they recommend users to go to the official cars website.
Trivia
- Red could be seen driving from Radiator Springs to Redhood Valley. Doc could be seen driving from Radiator Springs to Willy's Butte. In Doc's case, this happened until he was removed from the game.
- The oldest post about World of Cars Online was in August 1, 2006, in Joe Shochet's website (worker for almost every virtual game Disney made), where he explained his role in The World of Cars Online. This means the first designs of the game were made only two months after the first movie came out. And two years later the Test Track would take place.
- Redhood Valley didn't exist when the game opened, there was just rocks blocking the entrance. When Sally got trapped (and rescued after that), the place was opened to the public.
- In summer of 2011, the game was updated for Cars 2. Some of these updates included updating Lightning's paint job and removing Doc from the game. Before the update, Doc raced inCarburetor County Speedway and Willy's Butte Rally, but after the update he was replaced by Sally and Sarge, respectively.
Gallery
- For this subject's image gallery, see The World of Cars Online/Gallery.