The World of Cars Online

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 on November 20, 2009 to make way for Open Beta. The first trailer for the game was released on the games site on August 13, 2009.
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 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 29, 2010, each car was awarded 2,010 car-coins, a Founder's plaque and an Open Beta plaque (For users who joined during the Open Beta).
In January 5, 2012 at 02:10 PM PST, Sparks announced in the game's blog that the game would be closing. The game finally closed in Wednesday, February 8th, 2012. The website was officially taken down in July, 2013.
==Gameplay==
Players can create an account, and then create a car - the player can customize their eyes and body color, name it with a variety of names and surnames given by the game system, and choose and customize their 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) which was added a few months later. There the player can roam around while chatting with other players, playing minigames and doing quests.
In race mode, the player can race with other people currently playing the game, friends, or against the AI (Radiator Springs townsfolk or the Delinquent Road Hazards). Racing 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.
There were other features such as badges, souvenirs and collectibles that did not affect gameplay. Cars 2: The Video Game had a special feature to link your World of Cars account to the game, which gave you awards in both games (rewards for the World of Cars, and earning spy points and unlocking characters in the Cars 2 game). There was a total of 5 awards. Since the servers have shutdown in 2012, a message saying you're unable to communicate with Disney's servers will appear. 
== Servers ==
The World of Cars Online had a total of 33 available servers to join the game. However, Alignment was the most visited server, mainly because it was the first option and the number of players rarely caused the server to be full, while the rest of the servers were usually empty as the game didn't get enough players during it's run.
==Sponsorship==
Sponsorship was the paid subscription in-game, which costed USD $5.95 a month. They could have gotten access to tons of extra things - unlimited customization in Radiator Springs buildings and your yard, starting your Racing career in Piston Cup races (named Pro tracks) and joining different sponsors. Due to the game closure, from January 5, 2012 to February 8, 2012, every player got free sponsorship. The very low number of paid members between June 2010 and December 2011 was one of the reasons the game closed.
==Characters ==
The World of Cars Online counted with a voice cast for the franchise characters, with Keith Ferguson reprising his role as Lightning McQueen in the Cars videogames. However, characters like Chick Hicks, Francesco Bernoulli and Mack remained silent due to not having any voicelines added.
Icon	Name 	Voice Actor 	Notes 	
 	Lightning McQueen 	Keith Ferguson 	Updated in the summer of 2011 to have his paint job matching with his World Grand Prix paint job from Cars 2.	
 	Mater 	Larry the Cable Guy	Had voice lines since the Test Track. 	
 	Sally 	Bonnie Hunt 	 	
 	Doc Hudson 	Corey Burton 	Removed in the summer of 2011, after the release of Cars 2. 	
 	Fillmore 	Lloyd Sherr 	 	
 	Sheriff 	Michael Wallis 	 	
 	Sarge 	Paul Dooley 	 	
 	Lizzie 	Katherine Helmond 	Voice lines for her were found in the game's files, but were never used. 	
 	Snot Rod 	Lou Romano 	An audio file of him sneezing was found in the game's files, but was never used. 	
 	Ramone 	Cheech Marin 	 	
 	Luigi 	Tony Shalhoub 	 	
 	Flo 	Jenifer Lewis 	Voice lines for her were found in the game's files, but were never used. 	
 	Tractors 	Steve Purcell 	 	
 	Guido 	N/A 	 	
 	Chick Hicks 	N/A 	 	
 	Francesco Bernoulli	N/A 	Added in the summer of 2011, after the release of Cars 2. 	
 	Mack 	N/A 	 	
 	Red 	N/A 	 	
 	Boost 	N/A 	 	
 	DJ 	N/A 	 	
 	Wingo 	N/A 	 	
 	Frank 	N/A 	 	
 	Todd Marcus 	N/A 	 	
 	Floyd Mulvihill 	N/A 	 	
 	Rusty Cornfuel 	N/A 	 	
 	Slider Petrolski 	N/A 	 	
 	Lee Revkins 	N/A 	 	
 	Ruby "Easy" Oaks 	N/A 	 	
 	Johnny Blamer 	N/A 	 	
 	Brush Curber 	N/A 	 	
 	Haul Inngas 	N/A 	 	
 	Kevin Shiftright 	N/A 	 	
 	Sage VanDerSpin 	N/A 	 	
 	Greg Candyman 	N/A 	 	
 	Ryan Shields 	N/A 	 	
==Locations== 
*Downtown Radiator Springs
*Willy's Butte
*Fillmore's Fields
*Redhood Valley
====Never opened====
*Tailfin Pass
*Wheel Well
*Tired Flats
*Overheat Peak
*Double Clutch Gulch
*Stanley's Oasis
*Ornament Valley Alley
==Race Tracks==
Racing was a main component of The World of Cars Online. The game had a total of 4 tracks which users were allowed to race on, each one located in a different zone of Carburetor County. Races rewarded you with Car-coins and Race points. Reaching a certain amount of Race points unlocked Pro Tracks (the name given to the Piston Cup Racing Series in the game), only available if you were a sponsored car.
===Carburetor County=== 
*Carburetor County Speedway
*Willy's Butte Rally 
*Fillmore's Fields Rally
*Twistin Tailfin Trails
====Rewards====
 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
 	 	 	 	 	 	 	 	
1st place	320 coins and 640 Race points 	336 coins and 672 Race points	200 coins and 400 Race points	210 coins and 420 Race points	400 coins and 800 Race points	420 coins and 840 Race points	480 coins and 960 Race points	504 coins and 1,008 Race points
2nd place	240 coins and 480 Race points 	252 coins and 504 Race points	150 coins and 300 Race points	157 coins and 315 Race points	300 coins and 600 Race points	315 coins and 630 Race points	360 coins and 720 Race points	378 coins and 756 Race points
3rd place	160 coins and 320 Race points 	168 coins and 336 Race points	100 coins and 200 Race points	105 coins and 210 Race points	210 coins and 420 Race points	240 coins and 480 Race points	240 coins 480 Race points 	252 coins and 504 Race points
4th place	80 coins and 160 racing points	84 coins and 168 Race points 	50 coins and 100 Race points 	52 coins and 105 Race points 	120 coins and 240 Race points	126 coins and 252 Race points	120 coins and 240 Race points	126 coins and 252 Race points
===Pro Tracks=== 
*Tailgator Speedway
*Big Heartland Speedway
* Backfire Canyon Speedway 
*Petroleum City Super Speedway
* Motor Speedway of the South
*Los Angeles International Speedway
====Pro Tracks information====
 	 	 	 	 	 	
 	 	 	 	 	 	
Opening date 	September 1st, 2010	November 3rd, 2010 	February 2011 	March 2011 	May 27th, 2011 	June 24th, 2011
Race points required	60,000 	200,000 	380,000 	640,000 	1,000,000 	1,000,001
Other requirements 	 	Finish Tailgator Speedway	Finish Big Heartland Speedway	Finish Backfire Canyon Speedway	Finish Petroleum City Super Speedway	Finish Motor Speedway of the South
==Race points==
Race points were a rewarding system to unlock Pro Tracks, you could earn them by racing in Carburetor County tracks. The limit of Race points a player could reach was 1,000,001 points. In January 20th, 2012, they were replaced by Pro Passes (talking to Lightning McQueen automatically bumps up your Race Points to unlock tracks).
*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
==Quests==
Quests were missions given to the player to get rewards in-game.
==Badges==
Badges were rewards given to the player by doing certain activities in the game.
==Souvenirs==
Souvenirs were rewards given to the player by participating in events of the game.
== Closing ==
In January 5, 2012 at 02:10 PM PST, Sparks announced in the Crews News Blog that the game would be closing the next month. However, it wasn't mentioned the reason of the closure. Following the post, the website got a massive change, being the most notorious a Mater slider with the closure announcement. Also, credit cards were no longer being charged a recurring payment for Sponsorship, and all current paid members were contacted with refund options. In the comments section, Sparks himself stated that the game was closing for good and when he was asked about the possibility of another Cars online game, he just recommended users to go to the Official Cars website.https://web.archive.org/web/20120128125315/http://worldofcars.go.com/blog/cars/entry/the_finish_line 
From January 5th to February 8th, free Sponsorship was given to every player to have all features from the game, including access to Pro Tracks and getting free daily gifts from the Radiator Springs residents. In January 20th, Race Points were replaced by Pro Passes as players were having trouble earning them. If you talked to Lightning McQueen, he would give you a Pro Pass for each Pro Track.https://web.archive.org/web/20120128125315/http://worldofcars.go.com/blog/cars/entry/race_to_the_finish 
The World of Cars Online servers officially closed on Wednesday, February 8th, 2012. Disney was expected to refund up to $8,000 in membership fees that couldn't be concluded with game time. When asked for the reason of the closure, Disney mentioned their commitment to offering high-quality experiences, apparently something that was missing in The World of Cars Online.https://web.archive.org/web/20121101014706/http://worldofcars.go.com/index.html The game never picked up as much as other Disney MMORPG's. The total user count was about 60,000. The majority of those users were inactive and unpaid. Many began playing during Open Beta and left once payment was required to continue.
From February 8th, 2012 to June 2013, all the website buttons were gone and the homepage only consisted in closing FAQs, other contact info and a downloable RSN souvenir booklet, before being taken down in July 2013.
==Beta elements==
A lot of content shown in trailers were cut in the final version of the game, such as adding buildings and roads in your yard and Tractor Tippin' game.
== Glitches==
==Patches==
For this subject's list of patches, see The World of Cars Online/Patches
==Staffs==
== Gallery==
==Trivia== 
*The website domain was registered to Disney around March 2008.
*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. Doc raced in Carburetor 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 1st, 2006, in Joe Shochet's website. 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.
** Similarly, you couldn't choose numbers 43, 86 and 95.
* Ramone constantly changed his paint job. You could see his purple, yellow and green paint jobs.
*You could get Tractors in your backyard, they would drive around the place, unless you blocked them with items or by tipping them while they slept.
*Five months after the game closure, there was another game called Cars Land Racers, which used the same technology. However, it only lasted for one year before closing.
*Spanish and Japanese instructions were found in the game files, implying the game had plans to be playable in other languages.
*According to a developer in a interview, the game costed $10 million budget to make.
*All the file names about the closure of the game include the word sunset, meaning the game was gonna "drive into the sunset".
*In the DS version of Cars 2: The Video Game, if you try to select the World of Cars option in the menu: In all but the English language, a message saying the game is currently unavailable in your language will appear. In the American version, the message will change to the servers are not available at the moment. In the Japanese and Turkish version of Cars 2 The Videogame, the World of Cars Online option doesn't exist.
*In April 2023, a Reddit user scraped the Disney CDN and had gotten all the data, including the client for the game, which was shared publicly, leading to an unofficial revival of the game in July 2024.
==Navigation==
==References==
Category:Video games
Category:Browser games
Category:The World of Cars Online