Lightning McQueen Coloring Pages

Ka-chow! These Lightning McQueen coloring pages put the red race car from Disney and Pixar's Cars on the track, on the road and everywhere in between. Each one shows his big windshield eyes and wide grin, and every page prints for free.

On the road with McQueen:

• Race day: speeding around a curve, crossing the finish line under a checkered flag, lined up at the starting grid, on a jack in the pit.
• Road trips through the desert, a canyon, the mountains, a tunnel and along the coast.
• Everyday fun: the car wash, a big puddle, the fuel pump, an ice cream stand, the beach and a farm.
• Friends: Mater the tow truck towing him, and his transport truck Mack.
• Holiday McQueen for Halloween, Christmas, Easter, Valentine's Day and birthdays.

Lightning McQueen, the rookie from Radiator Springs

Lightning McQueen is the star of Cars, released by Pixar in 2006, followed by Cars 2 (2011) and Cars 3 (2017). He is a young, cocky rookie race car who dreams of winning the Piston Cup. On his way to the big race, he gets lost and ends up in Radiator Springs, a sleepy town on old Route 66, where he learns that friends matter more than trophies.

He is number 95, a nod to 1995, the year Pixar released Toy Story. His catchphrase "Ka-chow!" comes from the sound of a camera flash, because McQueen loves to show off for photographers. He was voiced by Owen Wilson.

Radiator Springs is a made-up town, but it was inspired by real places on Route 66, the historic highway that crosses the United States from Chicago to Santa Monica. When a new interstate highway was built, towns along the old road lost their visitors, and that is the story the film tells: McQueen helps bring the town back to life. The red rock buttes in the background of the film are shaped like classic car hoods and tail fins, a joke the animators hid in the scenery.

Lightning McQueen racing coloring pages

Kids who love speed will start with the race pages. McQueen leans into a banked curve with motion lines streaming behind him, crosses the finish line while a flagman waves the checkered flag, and lines up at the starting grid with two other race cars. In the pit he sits on a jack between stacks of tires, and he stands on a tire podium under falling confetti.

Racing fans will find more fast cars in the car coloring pages, the Hot Wheels coloring pages and the monster truck coloring pages.

Lightning McQueen's colors

• Body: bright red.
• Lightning bolt and number 95: yellow with an orange edge.
• Windshield eyes: white with blue irises.
• Tires: black, with red rims.
• Headlights: he has painted-on stickers instead of real lights, so they can stay pale yellow or white.

Use two reds if you have them: a bright red for the hood and roof, a darker red along the bottom of the doors to make him look shiny and round.

Mater and Radiator Springs

Mater, the rusty tow truck with buck teeth, is McQueen's best friend. He tows McQueen down a winding road, hook and all. Color him light brown and rust orange, with a blue-gray roof and a hook at the back. Mack, the big red truck who carries McQueen from race to race, has his own scene: McQueen rolling up the ramp into the trailer.

Many road trip pages feel like Radiator Springs and Route 66: a desert road between cactuses, a canyon road under the stars, a fuel pump and an ice cream stand. More big rigs and tow trucks wait in the truck coloring pages, and every kind of wheels in the vehicle coloring pages.

McQueen on vacation

McQueen also takes days off. He parks by a big sandcastle and under a beach umbrella with a beach ball, which makes a sunny set with the beach coloring pages and the summer coloring pages. He drives through the car wash, splashes through a big puddle and visits a farm with a tractor and hay bales, a fun pairing with the tractor coloring pages.

In another scene his hood is open to show his engine, a good page for kids who like to know how cars work.

McQueen's look comes from real race cars and sports cars. Pixar's designers mixed the shape of a stock car, the kind raced in American oval track series, with curves borrowed from sports cars of the 2000s. That is why he has a big rear spoiler for the race track and smooth, rounded fenders like a road car.

Lightning McQueen in costume for every season

For October, McQueen carries a pile of pumpkins and a jack o'lantern on his roof, and drives among little ghosts and bats. Both make a fast addition to the Halloween coloring pages and the pumpkin coloring pages.

In December he wears a wreath on his hood under string lights, carries a Christmas tree on his roof and gets covered in snow next to a snowman. Add them to the Christmas coloring pages and the snowman coloring pages.

Spring brings a woven basket of eggs balanced on his roof, ready for the Easter coloring pages. February gets a bow, little hearts and balloons, and his birthday a party hat next to a cake with one candle.

Easy McQueen pages and detailed ones

The smiling close-ups, the number 95 portrait and the snowy McQueen leave lots of open space. Quick to color brings these simpler Cars pages to the front:

• Three Race Cars at the Starting Line
• Lightning McQueen in the Snow
• Lightning McQueen Number 95

The warehouse, the tunnel and Mack's trailer have many more lines and panels. Lots of detail collects them for older kids:

• Lightning McQueen in a Tunnel
• Lightning McQueen with an Easter Basket
• Lightning McQueen in the Warehouse

A Lightning McQueen birthday party

1. Print the birthday cake page, the finish line and a few road trip scenes.
2. Give everyone red, yellow, blue and black, plus brown for Mater.
3. Let each child invent a race number for their own car and write it on the door.
4. Line the pages up on a long strip of black paper with a dashed white line, like a race track.

To finish, hold a "Piston Cup" award ceremony: every colored car gets a prize, for the shiniest paint, the fastest-looking stripes or the funniest face.

Printing McQueen

Every McQueen sheet is a 300 dpi A4 PDF, free to download. His spoiler and the road often run to the edges, and the fit to page setting saves them on Letter paper. Build a whole race in your Add to pack list and print it in one go. Browser by browser, the printing guide shows where these settings are.