Car choice: If you are confident in your driving, take Mater instead of Lightning for the DJ, Snot Rod and Wingo segments (and switch to McQueen afterwards): he’s noticeably faster than McQueen on the overwhelming majority of the tracks and makes up for the time on switching to McQueen after Wingo but far less forgiving; otherwise McQueen is by far the best.

Powerslide boosting: By pressing powerslide button (plus a directional input) for an extremely brief period at the end of using boost you speed lock for a short while and thus you can speedlock at max speed and keep it as the time in a speedlock is enough for the boost to recharge a bit.

Perfect start: If you press gas right before “go!” on the countdown you’ll get a head start. Best way to orient when to press gas is to go by the audio ques.

Drafting:

Draft the opponent who’s at the 4th place, but swerve for just a bit before stabilizing behind them to not spin them out and be careful to not get spun out by the 5th place opponent, who is now behind you. Then you can launch yourself ahead of the pack. Exceptions are Radiator Springs and Torquetown where you can headstart, not draft and use boost pads. On DJ race since you’re driving Mater you want to use boost the instant you start getting boost from drafting him to keep doing the draft.

Mud pools:

You can powerslide through mud pools to negate the speedloss. Be careful to not powerslide boost through them to avoid the risk of spinning out.

Shortcuts and jumps:

Shortcuts to avoid

• Desert Canyon Dash unlocking shortcut by calling Red isn’t worth it in a three-lapper; shortcut with jump isn’t worth it as well, better powerslide through the mud pool. • Radiator Cap Run the second shortcut won’t be unlocked at the third lap if you’re fast enough • First shortcut of Mesa Ravine • Last shortcut of Frank’s Field

Jumps Most jumps you want to avoid except those that lead to big shortcuts and the first ramp at Radiator springs which gives you enough boost for the whole race (interstate unlocking ramps too because you can powerslide boost through the whole highway part). Avoid using boost and/or powersliding when entering jumps in tight spaces (such as second shortcut in Mesa Ravine and shortcuts in Radiator cap run, for example).