Lightning McQueen's Racing Academy

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What It Is
Cars Show
Our Rating

Current Wait Time
Park is closed

Appeal By Age
Based our reader surveys. See our Ratings and Research page for details.
Preschool
Grade School
Teens
Young Adults
Over 30
Seniors

General Info
Location	Sunset Boulevard
Opening Date	March 31, 2019
Duration	10 minutes
Scope and Scale	Minor Attraction

Inaccurate/stale data?
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Description And Comments

This theater show features Cars superstars Lightning McQueen, Cruz Ramirez, and Tow Mater. While the last two appear only on the massive wraparound screen, Lightning McQueen is front and center as a full-size animatronic.

The show starts slowly, with Lightning explaining why he developed a racing academy, but it becomes impressive once the simulation starts. Using the huge screens, Lightning mimes racing as a track flies by around you. As usual, things don’t go quite as planned when an old adversary shows up, but it’s all settled by a race, of course.

For a relatively short show, the visuals and the wonderfully subtle movements of Lightning on the stage make this a worthwhile stop in the Studios.

Touring Tips

Added to increase the park’s capacity, Lightning McQueen’s Racing Academy is located in one of the most remote corners of the park: past the end of Sunset Boulevard, then past the end of the Rock ’n’ Roller Coaster plaza. Because it’s hard to find and requires backtracking to get anywhere else, it’s rarely crowded. A photo opportunity with Cruz Ramirez is outside the show.

Lightning McQueen's Racing Academy Wait Times

This chart shows you roughly how long you'll wait for Lightning McQueen's Racing Academy when you visit on a day with a given Disney's Hollywood Studios Crowd Level. The blue bars represent the average "peak" wait time (that is, how long the line will be at its busiest). The bottom and top black lines represent the range of peak wait times to expect (for you fellow nerds out there: it's the 5th percentile and 95th percentile of peak wait times). Please note that these are estimates, and for a better forecast for your travel dates, see Lightning McQueen's Racing Academy Wait Times.