NASCAR Cup driver Chase Elliott recently shared how he and his fellow racers got to be in Pixar’s Cars movies. According to him, former driver Jeff Gordon’s connections in the film industry helped make it happen.
Elliott played 'Chase Racelott' in the 2017 Cars trilogy, and other NASCAR drivers, like Ryan Blaney, Bubba Wallace, and Daniel Suarez, also made cameos. His character was based on him and had the number 24. Chase Elliott replaced Gordon in Hendrick Motorsports No. 24 car for his first two NASCAR Cup Series seasons in 2016-17.
During an interview with Chat Us Up, the 2020 NASCAR Cup Series championship winner talked about his experience voicing the character in the Cars franchise. He said:
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"Yeah, it was actually really cool...Being able to do that, it was so different and outside the norm than anything I'd ever seen. I'd never voiced anything over, I didn't know how it worked, but it was really cool. I would totally do that again. It was a pretty neat experience."
NASCAR legends Jeff Gordon, Darrell Waltrip, and Richard Petty also appeared in the Cars. Chase Elliott also shed some light on how the $200M-worth Gordon (according to Celebrity Net Worth) helped with the opportunity.
"I don't really know where the opportunity originated. So, Jeff Gordon had some friends in the filming industry during that time period, and I think that that was where the connection kind of really began for some of us drivers to do it."
Hendrick Motorsports' vice chairman, Jeff Gordon, voiced Jeff Gorvette in the previous Cars movie and also appeared in the Cars 2: The Video Game'. Notably, he also returned for the third movie in 2017.
Chase Elliott on first top-5 finish of 2025 NASCAR Cup season
Chase Elliott had tough races at Daytona and Atlanta, where he finished in 15th and 20th place, respectively. The No. 9 Chevy driver later landed a fourth-place finish at Circuit of the Americas (COTA). Last weekend, he also finished in the top 10 at the Shriners Children's 500 at Phoenix Raceway.
Elliott credited his team for the top-five finish after a rough race at COTA. He started the race in third place and was involved in a crash with Ross Chastain during lap 1. He said his team only had one real chance to move up, and his crew chief, Alan Gustafson, made a smart call to change tires at the end. Chase Elliott said in the post-race interview with FrontStretch:
"There at the end, I wouldn't say the other runs were we might have started in the back, but we didn't really go anywhere. But Allen made a great call there to put tires on us and kind of get us on offense, and that was really our only chance to make anything out of it, so it worked."
Chase Elliott’s car had a broken toe link, which pushed him to the back. But he managed to achieve his first top-five finish of the 2025 season at COTA. He has managed to clinch 124 points and finds himself in the fourth position in the overall 2025 Cup Series standings after the first four races.
