Since the races are actually training simulations, it's fully justified.

Adaptational Badass: Natalie Certain and Mack are fully capable of keeping up with the other cars despite demonstrating no racing skills in the movies.

Mack (can be unlocked by collecting all ten of his hats in the Thomasville Playground).

Smokey (can be unlocked by gaining 124 skill checks).

River Scott (can be unlocked by gaining 77 skill checks).

Louise Nash (can be unlocked by gaining 57 skill checks).

Junior Moon (can be unlocked by gaining 27 skill checks).

Jackson Storm (can be unlocked by beating him in the Race Master-Level challenge).

Rich Mixon (can be unlocked by gaining 85 skill checks).

Cam Spinner (can be unlocked by gaining 50 skill checks).

Miss Fritter (can be unlocked by beating her in the Battle Race Master-Level challenge).

Damage (can be unlocked by gaining 70 skill checks)

Arvy (can be unlocked by gaining 40 skill checks).

Fabulous Lightning McQueen (added via update).

Natalie Certain (can be unlocked by gaining 17 skill checks).

Chick Hicks (can be unlocked by beating him in the Takedown Master-Level challenge).

Brick Yeardley (can be unlocked by gaining 7 skill checks).

Bobby Swift (can be unlocked by gaining 4 skill checks).

Mater the Greater (can be unlocked by beating him in the Stunt Showcase Master-Level challenge).

Five tracks from Cars 2: The Video Game also make an appearance. There are 21 tracks to unlock, including Fireball Beach, Thunder Hollow, Radiator Springs and Florida 500. Soon afterwards, you can unlock new tracks by partaking in them. The first race is the Thomasville Flashback, where Lightning and Cruz race racing legends like Doc Hudson, Junior Moon, Louise Nash and River Scott via a Virtual Training Simulation, to make it look like the two are actually racing with them. This game takes place after the events of Cars 3. Instead, it is distributed by Warner Bros. This is the first Disney-based game to not be distributed by Disney Interactive Studios after going bankrupt in May 2016. The game was developed by Avalanche Software as their first game after their reopening note The developer was initially shut down in May 2016 after the cancellation of their Disney Infinity series they reopened in January 2017 and released for the PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Nintendo Switch, Xbox One, Xbox 360 and Wii U on June 13, 2017.

Cars 3: Driven to Win is the seventh game in the Cars franchise.

Cars 3 driven to win all skill checks