As Sally was once a race car, her racing abilities are significant, which are evident in some of her appearances, notably Cars: The Videogame, in which she is a playable character. Her statistics suggest she has strong speed and acceleration, but her handling and stability are below average. DJ's original die-cast depicted him with blue stripes rather than green. This was corrected in 2009, but the incorrect striping returned on his 2015 re-release. In Miss Fritter's Racing Skoool, McQueen and Cruz Ramirez watch a commercial for Miss Fritter's Racing Skoool. Later after watching the commercial, McQueen notices one of his trophies toppled and broke, explaining to Cruz that going to Miss Fritter's school program is too dangerous to attend. Carrera is among the more intelligent citizens of Radiator Springs, in addition to being viewed as charming by other cars, such as McQueen and Mater. Upon her entrance during McQueen's trial, she catches Lightning's attention, and he begins to flirt with her, feeling an attraction. Despite initially showing contempt and disgust towards McQueen following his destruction of Radiator Springs' main road, the two eventually form a bond, and enter a relationship following Lightning's return to Radiator Springs after the 2005 Piston Cup season's closure.

DJ is a Reko-do Spinner, a model that closely resembles a 2004 Scion xB, also known as a Toyota bB in Japan. He has a large tuner spoiler and built in subwoofers and speakers. He is painted completely blue, with green lining on his doors. He also has volume indicators in his rims, as shown when he drives. During this, Lightning and Cruz watch old footage of Doc's races. They see that he used the drafting technique to gain speed and see him use the barricade to flip over another car who tried to ram him into the wall. On their final day of training, McQueen manages to pull ahead on the speedway, but Cruz still wins. They have to head to Florida for the race.In The Simpsons, there were some references about Cars. In the episode " Beware My Cheating Bart" (S23E18), at the cinema entrance is the title of a movie called Cars 3: Merchandise. In the episode " The Ned-liest Catch" (S23E22), one of the characters, Milhouse, mentions Cars. He says "I sleep under my bed every night because I'm scared of cars from Cars. If gasoline is their food, then why they have teeth?" In the story mode of Cars: The Videogame, Sally is one of the cars that competes in the Radiator Springs Grand Prix, Lightning's dream race. When he awakes in the Cozy Cone Motel, Sally is there to greet him, who informs him that there are new cars in town that are looking to race with him, as well as that Doc is waiting for him out at Willy's Butte.

Possessing skills that resemble that of a dragon, and defeats Kabuto's Ninjas with little to no trouble ( Tokyo Mater)

Right before McQueen leaves to the Rust-Eze Racing Center - he and Sally are exchanging with the love-lines. In the Cars Toons episode Tokyo Mater, Guido says "modify" in English, which is one of the rare times he says an English word, and the only one in a Cars Toons episode. DJ and his friends are first seen in the cutscene for Delinquent Road Hazards, where they prevent Lightning from entering a certain road in Tailfin Pass, and McQueen responds by challenging them to a race, and trashtalking them. After Lightning wins, they tell him it "isn't over", and angrily speed away. Cars: The Videogame • Cars: Radiator Springs Adventures • Cars: Mater-National Championship • Cars: Race-O-Rama • The World of Cars Online • Cars Toon: Mater's Tall Tales • Cars 2: The Video Game • Kinect Rush: A Disney/Pixar Adventure • Disney Infinity • Disney Infinity: 2.0 Edition • Cars: Fast as Lightning • Cars 3: Driven to Win