The World of Cars Online

Logo.

The World of Cars Online was an online computer game, previously available to play on the Disney Official Website.

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. From March to May 2010, the Beta Test Party (or Open Beta) took place to fix the latest bugs and prepare the official launch of the game. When the Open Beta ended and the game finally opened on June 29th, 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 5, 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 with a variety of names and surnames given by the game system, 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 against the AI (Radiator Springs townsfolk or the Delinquent Road Hazards). Winning these will earn the player car-coins and Race Points, which can be collected to move on to bigger races if the player was a sponsored car.

If the player was sponsored, which costed five dollars a month, they could have gotten access to tons of extra things - unlimited customization in Ramone's House of Body Art and Luigi's Casa Della Tires, access to Piston Cup races, and getting sponsors to become a reserve driver for big shot race cars.

Characters

• Lightning McQueen
• Mater
• Sally Carrera
• Doc Hudson (until summer 2011)
• Francesco Bernoulli (since 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

Locations

• Downtown Radiator Springs
• Willy's Butte
• Fillmore's Fields
• Redhood Valley

Never opened

• Tailfin Pass
• Tired Flats
• Double Clutch Gulch

Tracks

There were 10 tracks which users were allowed to race on. Only sponsored cars could race in Piston Cup races.

Carburetor County

• Carburetor County Speedway
• Willy's Butte Rally
• Fillmore's Fields Rally
• Twistin Tailfin Trails
  

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 Fields 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 model 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

• In summer of 2011, the game was updated for Cars 2. Some of these updates included a World Grand Prix party, adding hidden spy-gadget shops around Radiator Springs, updating Lightning's paint job, adding Francesco 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.
• Red could be seen driving from Radiator Springs to Redhood Valley, and Doc could be seen driving from Radiator Springs to Willy's Butte and Redhood Valley. 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.
• Number 69 was not allowed, as the 60's stop at 68. This was considered by many as a very strict parental control.
• You could get Tractors to your backyard, they would drive around the place, unless you blocked them with items or by tipping them while they sleep.
• 5 months after the game closure, there was another game called Cars Land Racers, which used the same technology. However, it only lasted one year.
• According to a developer, the game costed $10 million budget to make.

Gallery

For this subject's image gallery, see The World of Cars Online/Gallery.