The reason? Because "Cars" director John Lasseter "gets" Route 66 and its allure.

Here's an excerpt from a New York Times story that illustrates this:

As for the town of Radiator Springs, the quirky desert hamlet on Route 66, it provides a reminder of the less homogenized America Mr. Lasseter saw as a boy.

"For a lot of our vacations, my brother and sister and I would pile into the station wagon, and our parents would drive Route 66 from L.A.," he recalled. "When they started building the Interstate, my dad would drive it for parts of our journeys and say, 'Now we can really make time.' But the Interstate was so smooth, you'd lose track of where you were. When you drove Route 66, you really felt the land. You knew where it was hilly and where it was flat. On the Interstate it was all flat."

The melancholy images of the forgotten town balance the fast-paced racing scenes and broad comic sequences. Mr. Lasseter says his use of these moments was inspired by the films of Hayao Miyazaki, the Japanese animation director.

"In every one," he said, "there are beautiful quiet scenes. The drive in our early films was to trim out all the 'dead spots,' because the executives were always saying: 'I'm going for popcorn.' 'You're losing me.' After a while I realized I wasn't going to lose the audience. The executives were used to seeing the movie, but the audience wouldn't be. They'd be with us in those moments."

The Pontiac (Ill.) Daily Leader reports:

Ten Norwegians on their way to Los Angeles aboard seven Harley-Davidson motorcycles visited Pontiac's Route 66 museum Thursday afternoon, getting a look at some Illinois aspects of the highway they will travel on their 10-day journey.

"Route 66 all the way," one of the members of the group - friends who share a liking of motorcycles and the famous road - told a reporter shortly after their arrival in Pontiac, their gleaming, rented-in-Chicago Harleys arranged in a neat line in the Main Street parking lot south of old city hall.

The rest of the story is here. 

The funny part is, it's not that big of a deal. When I'm out on the road, hardly a day goes by when I don't encounter a European tourist in a car or motorcycle seeking their kicks on Route 66. And there will be many more motorcycle tours before the summer ends.

Sarah Overstreet of the Springfield News-Leader shares her memories of the now-defunct Red's Giant Hamburg, which was along old Route 66 in Springfield, Mo. Her writing paints a vivid picture of what the place was like in its heyday.

Julia Chaney, former co-owner fo the restaurant, died a little over a week ago. The other co-owner, Red Chaney, died in 1997.

Mary Adamski, a religion columnist for the Honolulu Star-Bulletin, writes about some people being extremely wary about the date June 6, 2006, that will be apocalyptic somehow because the date is kinda sorta “666,” or the “mark of the Beast” from the Bible’s Book of Revelation.

Adamski writes:

We might think we’re in an enlightened age or are a sophisticated society, but there are inhabitants of the 21st century who are scared of 666. People have chosen not to move into a place with that address. People have asked for a different Social Security number.

Only a couple of years ago, politicians succeeded in getting the federal government to renumber a highway because it was considered such an inauspicious address. The old Route 666 was an offshoot from Route 66, leading from Gallup, N.M., through parts of Colorado and Utah. What was fondly known as “triple six” by irreverent, unbelieving cowboys is now dull old Route 491.

The change of Route 666 remains a rare sore spot with me and New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson. He caved in to a bunch of half-baked, superstitious fundamentalists who thought U.S. 666 glorified Satan or some other nonsense, and he changed it to the more sedate Route 491. It was called Route 666 because that was the logical number to be  assigned in that region. Before the change, Route 666 was known for little more than having gorgeous scenery, having too many drunken-driving accidents (back when Gallup was more awash in booze) and an awful movie starring Lou Diamond Phillips.

My father-in-law, who’s well-read, thinks the Book of Revelation deals with the eventual fall of the Roman Empire and has little relevance in the modern-day. I’ve always found Revelation darned near unreadable, as it was packed with symbolism and code words to keep Roman captors at bay.

As for me, 6/6/06 will be a good day, because I’ll be downloading the Cars soundtrack, which will be released that day.

Steve Vaught, the man who walked much of Route 66 in a cross-country effort to lose weight and documented much of his trek on thefatmanwalking.com, has been on a tough row to hoe lately.

This article by the San Diego Union-Tribune spells out much of his recent troubles. Not only is he accused of skipping several long stretches during his walk, including 117 miles from from Albuquerque to Tucumcari, but apparently he has lost his book deal with New York publisher Judith Regan. The Washington Post also has a story.

Friday night was the big premiere for the Pixar "Cars" movie at Lowes Motor Speedway at Concord, N.C. A sellout crowd of 30,000 people attended, as did a bunch of the movie's stars.

Here's the Associated Press story of the event.

Here's the report from AP's racing writer.

Here's a page that links to video report from News Channel 14 in Charlotte.

The Charlotte Observer has lots of coverage, including this poster page.

Here are a bunch of wire photos from the event. It's good to see Bonnie Hunt wearing a Route 66 T-shirt here.

UPDATE: Scene Daily, which reports on NASCAR racing, has a report. 

St. Louis is the most confusing town in which to drive Route 66. There are at least a half-dozen alignments and almost as many on the Illinois side of the river.

Route 66 mapper extraordinaire Stefan Joppich tries to figure out the Mother Road Maze that is the St. Louis region with a new section about the Gateway City. It's about as comprehensive as anything I've seen regarding that metro area's alignments. 

Red Fork Hippie, posting for Ron this evening:

This USA Today article lists New Mexico as one of the top 10 great road trips. The author is a little too enamored of the interstates for my taste, but the article itself, which focuses on some of Gallup’s Route 66 attractions — including the beautiful and historic El Rancho Hotel, which is a must-stop.

I particularly liked this description of Route 66 in western New Mexico:

The authentic hogans lie scattered amid red rock monoliths that litter the desert like abandoned castles. At Exit 36, hand-painted signs promising Navajo tacos lead to a home in tiny Iyanbito on the Navajo Reservation. Grazing horses disregard a trio of Navajo boys practicing their golf swings on a makeshift 16-hole course. It’s the sort of off-kilter encounter that makes veering off the interstate a detour into serendipity.

And this description of Gallup matches my own experiences:

The town is rough around the edges, but nonetheless a gem. At its heart, historic Route 66 splits vintage storefronts on one side from railroad tracks on the other. The town was forged by the railroad in 1881 (160 trains still pass through daily), but it’s now a major Indian crafts center. The selection of native jewelry rivals Santa Fe’s, but the prices don’t. …

The author concludes the piece with a description of the landscape and the billboards touting “Chief Yellowhorse and the Teepee Trading Post and Ortega’s Indian Jewelry Wholesale Outlet” on the way into Arizona:

The faded billboards may look as if they’ve been here since I-40 was but a gleam in President Eisenhower’s eye, but still they promise 20%, 30%, 50% off.

And you can’t help but think: Is this a great country or what?