Radiator Springs Curios is an eclectic little shop in Cars Land. But if you look beyond the assortment of goods for sale, you’ll spot a hidden gem that celebrates a very famous American road.
On the eastern wall (behind the cash register), you’ll see a map.
This is a stylized version of Route 66, one of the United States’ most famous highways spanning nearly 2,500 miles. Route 66 was an extremely popular route west from the 1930s to the 1970s, until it quickly lost traffic to the new interstate highway system.
From left to right, the shop’s map starts in Santa Monica, and calls out a few popular stops along the way, including the Grand Canyon and St. Louis.
Radiator Springs, the fictional setting of Cars, is a quiet town along Route 66 facing the harsh realities of post-interstate quiet. The town is situated in Monument valley (eastern Arizona) along the route. So the map within the shop is a nice reminder of the surrounding town’s history and geography!
