Hi Groucho! Let me give a little "testimony" here...when we were there last September....(of course the crowds were lighter then but...)
They had us lined up BEHIND THE YELLOW LINES....and you could hear, all of a sudden, the roar of Lightning's engine coming down thru the Park towards us. With every few seconds ticking by, you could hear him inch a little bit closer...
..and when he rounded that corner, MY GOSH! It was like a CELEBRITY had come into view! The crowd (GROWN-UPS and kids alike) WENT BESERK! I turned to my husband and said, "Are you believing this? It's like the President just got here or something."
People went haywire! It was a lot of fun; however, they wouldn't let anyone near him. We had to go up family-by-family, and you couldn't touch him or Mater. It was all handled very professionally and nicely.
To see that crowd around "Kachow!" (as you put it) makes me nervous!
BUT, all that said--he really is a fun character to see at the Park! I loved the excitement that he put into the day. It was truly a great memory to make!
Thanks for sharing your picture!
Thanks for the story! Interesting, when we were at WDW, once McQueen and Mater were more or less "parked", it was a free-for-all. My son
loves Cars so he enjoyed it (but was a bit shy - hey, he was just under 2 at the time!), and I enjoyed it from a "car guy" prospective - I think they did a really good job building him, and putting nice fat tires underneath.

I also liked the loud engine, etc.
In California Adventure (by
Disneyland), McQueen and Mater are just parked over to the side in one area, I think they're there more or less all the time, just sitting there. We didn't have to compete with anyone to see him - of course, it
was California Adventure, which is pretty barren most of the time anyway.

I have some photos but I'll stick to WDW again. today.
How about Wishes as seen from the beach at the Polynesian? We weren't staying there, just visiting one night. This is one that's really better at higher resolutions, so forgive the larger-than-usual dimensions.