Meet Two New Characters In Cars 3

Unfortunately, most extended warranties don't cover when your car goes through a midlife crisis.

If you saw the cryptic first teaser for Pixar's upcoming Cars 3, you know that everything is about to change for veteran racer Lightning McQueen (voiced by Owen Wilson). Now Entertainment Weekly has more details about the plot, along with what we can expect from his younger, millennial counterparts.

"McQueen is not the young hotshot anymore, the kid he was back then in Cars 1," said director Brian Fee. "He's in the middle of his life, and as an athlete, that's getting up there. You have your whole life ahead of you, yet your career is starting to show its age. He's looking in the mirror and realizing, 'I'm 40 years old,' and dealing with the fact that the thing that you love more than anything else, you might not be able to do forever."

To make matters worse, McQueen is up against a faster generation of racers including the villainous Jackson Storm (Armie Hammer).

"Jackson was born with a silver spoon in his mouth," Fee said. "Everything comes easy to him, and everything about him says he's faster, so much so that we've designed him so that even when he's standing next to McQueen, McQueen looks old... [Jackson] thinks the future of racing and the high-tech ways they train and what they can do means they're taking the sport to a new level, and the older guys had their day, and it's done, and they have no place in the future of racing."

However, McQueen will have at least one youngster in his corner: his new trainer Cruz Ramirez (Cristela Alonzo). "Whereas others like Jackson would look at McQueen and dump him, Cruz isn't like that at all," Fee said. "She's the most optimistic person in the world and wants to do anything to help."

The director also revealed that Cars 3 is "very emotional" and  "the most human" film in the franchise. But Fee wouldn't say if this is the end of the line for McQueen in the franchise, hinting that it might not be. "I have no idea what may be down the road, but I can tell you that for Lightning McQueen, as a character, I think by the end of the movie it's safe to say that this is only the beginning for him."

Cars 3 arrives in theaters June 16. Meanwhile, check out hidden details in Pixar movies you totally missed.