Nascar Rides?

[Cushes]

My son will turn 5 while we are down there Oct 11th. I want to make it special for him. All the sudden, he's taken a huge interest in Nascar.
Is there anything in any of the parks related to this?

Any other ideas for his birthday?

 

[mattsdragon]

well, since he's only 5, I guess the Richard Petty Experience is out of the question. Take him on the Tommorowland Indy Expressway and let him drive.

 

[Cushes]

I think I remember seeing that the last time we were there..
Thanks!

Any other ideas to make it special?

 

[Moonmom]

Well...Has he seen the "Cars" movie? It's not quite Nascar.. but... a couple of the cars, umm. Towmater, (the towtruck) and Lightening McQueen.. and,, and I think another one make appearances throughout the day and they escorted by their "pit crew." He might enjoy that...
And even though he's too young to do a ride along at the Richard Petty Experience; if you have a car and get over to the sppedway there; they have a little shop and the people are very nice. He might just enjoy seeing the photos of some of the drivers and those tires.. and maybe get to try on a helmet or something.
There's also a Nascar Cafe..but not at Disney..it's over near Universal.. but's it's a fun place to eat for a Nascar fan.

 

[Cushes]

Moonmom,
What park will have the Cars characters.. he LOVED that movie.

And that restaurant sounds great.. Is it easy to find?

The speedway may be a good idea too.

Thanks so much!

Is there a restaurant around that would do something special for his birthday?
He really isn't into the older Disney Characters and does not enjoy breakfast so I think that's out.
I really want to make that day extra special for him..

 

[dbarker]

If you have a car, Daytona USA is less than an hour away. We are huge Nascar fans and we HAD to go visit Daytona. It was awesome. DH did not get to do the Richard Petty Driving Experience b/c of some "Gator Day" thing that was going on. We still had a great time.

 

[amyminzey]

The Cars characters are at MGM, and they are in the parade there as well as make appearances. They can't really sign autographs since they are, um, cars, but one suggestion I read is to have your son place an autograph page on the tires and run his fingers over it and then he'll have a sort of dirt mark of the tire. If you place a protective sheet over it, it should stay.
I second the Nascar Cafe at Citywalk. You can take a cab there or a Mears bus if you don't have a car. Citywalk is at Universal Studios (kind of seperates US from Islands of Adventure). But they have a lot of nascar stuff at the cafe from what I see in the pics. Some of the cars are out front (Jeff Gordon's, Rusty Wallace's (now Kurt Busch's), and some others. And there's a lot inside, too. And all the food on the menu has a nascar theme. And I'm sure they have televisions showing races, etc. There's probably even a gift shop or something. (I have never been there, just speculating). FI and I are huge nascar fans and plan to eat here on our disneymoon. It looks like a lot of fun.
I also think it would be cool to take him to Richard Petty's, even if it is just to walk around, watch others drive/ride, go to the gift shop, etc.

 

[kj2mom]

He is one day younger than my two. We have a birthday Illuminations cruise booked for the night of his birthday, I wish we still had room it could have been a blast with the 3 birthday children (my son is named after a NASCAR driver ).

I haven't been in many years but is Race Rock still on International Drive? That might be a good place to go.

Also, maybe just going to the track and watching the cars do the experience? We did the Richard Petty ride along and rookie experience before we had children and I can't remember if you have to have reservations to get into the track but if you don't he might get a kick out of seeing the race cars go around the track in person. When I was there one was the #3 car and the other was the #24 for the ride along. If I didn't know I would have thought they were the real thing, maybe he will too!

 

[Moonmom]

The current info I found shows that the "Cars; Go Cruisin" on the Streets of America at MGM daily at 10:05, 11:-5, 12:05 .. then they're in the 3:00 pm parade.. then cruise again at 4:00 pm.
The Nascar Cafe has TV's all over the place; of course if there's a race on at that moment it'd be that particular race..if not another one; or qualifying or highlights or something. All the food is named something race or Nascar related.. your son will love it. And it usually comes looking pretty neat with a flag or something stuck in it.. I imagine for kids; they fix it it up more. "Race Rock" is more geared away from the stock cars.. more of the Indy type racing cars.
Gee.. I wanna go too!!

 

[Cushes]

Hmm.. I would love to see Cars again but I don't think we'll be going to MGM.

Is the Nascar cafe inside Universal? We were considering going to the park but was just wondering in case we decide not to.
It sounds like something he would like to do.


KJ2mom, Happy Birthday to your little one!

 

[Fire14]

The Cars characters are at MGM, and they are in the parade there as well as make appearances. They can't really sign autographs since they are, um, cars, but one suggestion I read is to have your son place an autograph page on the tires and run his fingers over it and then he'll have a sort of dirt mark of the tire. If you place a protective sheet over it, it should stay.
I second the Nascar Cafe at Citywalk. You can take a cab there or a Mears bus if you don't have a car. Citywalk is at Universal Studios (kind of seperates US from Islands of Adventure). But they have a lot of nascar stuff at the cafe from what I see in the pics. Some of the cars are out front (Jeff Gordon's, Rusty Wallace's (now Kurt Busch's), and some others. And there's a lot inside, too. And all the food on the menu has a nascar theme. And I'm sure they have televisions showing races, etc. There's probably even a gift shop or something. (I have never been there, just speculating). FI and I are huge nascar fans and plan to eat here on our disneymoon. It looks like a lot of fun.
I also think it would be cool to take him to Richard Petty's, even if it is just to walk around, watch others drive/ride, go to the gift shop, etc.

When I went a few years back. I got to see some of the drivers cars, check out gift shop, see driver uniforms and Tony's championship throphy. Also Carzilla is cool to hear rev up.

 

[HOGFAN]

for those that are interested there is a Nascar Cafe in Myrtle Beach also

 

[Fire14]

Is the Nascar cafe inside Universal? We were considering going to the park but was just wondering in case we decide not to.
It sounds like something he would like to do.

Nascar Cafe is on Unversial City walk so it's not in park but more like DTD at universial.

 

[Cdn Friends of Pooh]

I haven't been in many years but is Race Rock still on International Drive? That might be a good place to go.

It was still there this time last year - you can't miss it, it has a huge monster truck out front.

 

[amyminzey]

Hmm.. I would love to see Cars again but I don't think we'll be going to MGM.

Is the Nascar cafe inside Universal? We were considering going to the park but was just wondering in case we decide not to.
It sounds like something he would like to do.


KJ2mom, Happy Birthday to your little one!

No, Nascar Cafe is not inside Universal. It is at CityWalk, and there is no "admission ticket" to get into CityWalk. CityWalk is to Universal as Downtown Disney is to Disney World. I have never been, but from what I hear, you go through CityWalk to get to the entrances to each of the Universal parks. And there is a lot of shops, dining, and nightlife at CW.