Massive Model of Piston Peak Cars Land Will Win Over Skeptics of Rivers of America Replacement

A massive model of Piston Peak National Park in the Imagineering booth at the 2026 D23 Expo reveals the scale & scope of the Cars Land replacing the Rivers of America and Tom Sawyer Island in Magic Kingdom. This post features 75+ photos of every little detail of this stunning model, along with additional new details we now know about the overhauled area coming to Walt Disney World. It also shares our thoughts on sightlines from Liberty Square and Frontierland, a lot at the rockwork and lush landscape.

Plus, spoiler alert, why this Piston Peak National Park model is going to win over a lot of diehard Walt Disney World fans who were previously (understandably!) skeptical of this project. Suffice to say, it’s going to quiet a lot of the criticism about Disney’s decision to pave paradise and put in a parking lot. Really.

Before we get off to the races, let’s quickly bring you up to speed on these Magic Kingdom additions. According to Disney, these Cars attractions will be set outside of Radiator Springs, as the franchise heads west into exciting new frontiers. On this adventure, guests will be able to experience not one but two exciting new Cars-themed attractions.

The marquee attraction is not a clone of Radiator Springs from Disney California Adventure. It’s a new story and setting that goes beyond what was established in the Cars film franchise. Same goes for the secondary ride–it’s not Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree or Luigi’s Rollickin’ Roadsters, but it is a small flat ride, so similar idea (it’s revealed for the first time in the photos below).

One of the two all-new Cars attractions will invite you on a rally race through the mountains that offers family fun and thrills, excitement and humor. Take on wild terrain as you race across the landscape climbing mountain trails, dodging geysers and splashing through mud holes.

Here are the ride vehicles for the rally race attraction, which we assume is called Cars Rally Race based on a zoomed-in photo of the attraction marquee (see photo gallery):

In addition to that, Walt Disney World previously revealed Ranger J. Autobahn Woodlore, an original theme park character created for Piston Peak who is inspired by Ranger J. Audubon Woodlore from “Grand Canyonscope,” a Donald Duck animated short released in 1954. This new character will appear as an Audio Animatronics figure in the queue for the Cars Rally Race attraction.

Here’s Ranger J. Autobahn Woodlore:

Against that backdrop, we’re going to do a photo dump of the Piston Peak National Park, before pointing out some of the specifics of the Cars miniland model. Note that most of these were taken with a telephoto lens, and are more detailed than the human eye can see.

The model has a lot going on, and I’ve tried to present a lot of close-up shallow depth of field images to highlight as much as possible. But time was limited, and there’s undoubtedly a lot that I missed. I’ll start with some high-level wide angle establishing shots before turning to the close-ups.

Anyway, here are my photos of the massive model of Piston Peak National Park in the Walt Disney Imagineering booth on the show floor of the 2026 D23 Expo:

I had the chance to attend a media preview of the “Imagineering: Horizons” booth at the 2026 D23 Expo that included a guided tour of the model by the Imagineers leading the project.

This follows up an in-person site visit to an offsite Imagineering facility somewhere in Central Florida that included an incomplete working version of this model. What follows is combined from what Imagineers shared during these presentations, plus a previous virtual fly-through last June.

Here’s video of the Piston Peak model if you’re having trouble visualizing how everything fits together:

The scale model of Piston Peak National Park basically brings to life the previous, vague concept art and Fun Map in gorgeous 3D detail. It fills in a lot of gaps about the landscape, which is pulled from the existing Cars cinematic universe (specifically, Planes: Fire & Rescue).

The animated version of Piston Peak National Park in that film was inspired by Yellowstone and Yosemite National Parks, per the animators. That includes both the landscape itself and the architecture, or “parkitecture” as the movie features a mix of landmarks, lodges, and structures that are a mix of Yellowstone meets Yosemite.

Imagineers tell us that the natural landscape of the Piston Peak National Park in Magic Kingdom is being inspired by Rocky Mountain National Park. The Imagineering project team working on the Cars area revealed that they’ve visited Rocky Mountain National Park, and it’s a good fit for the centralized location in Frontierland, tying together the land in a cohesive manner.

It probably also helps that this Piston Peak National Park will feature beautiful buttes, rushing rapids, cool canyons, and a variety of other stunning landscapes–that kind of variety can be found at Rocky Mountain National Park.

With all of that out of the way, let’s dig deeper into this model…

I want to start with the waterway that abuts the existing Frontierland waterfront boardwalk. As I’ve mentioned repeatedly, this peaceful promenade is one of my favorite places in all of Magic Kingdom, and it would be a travesty to lose it completely.

One of my original hangups with this whole Cars project has been losing the waterfront. Again, paving paradise to put up a parking lot. Replacing the tranquil waters and a lush area that offered a lovely escape from the crowds and chaos of Magic Kingdom for almost the exact opposite of that.

The big thing for me was preserving the waterfront promenade and the ambiance it added while walking past the main drag of Frontierland, as that still would’ve accomplished the same goals from a guest decompression perspective.

As you can see from the model, this is smaller than the previous Rivers of America waterfront. There’s really no getting around that. However, it’s a massive improvement over the original Cars land concept art, which looked like a trickle of water features and an abundance of trees. As you can see from some of the other photos, it’s no longer elevated above water level.

There’s now a rushing river that runs between Frontierland and Piston Peak National Park, along with a number of water features throughout the land. Notably, there’s also a waterfront promenade on the existing Frontierland side.

While discussing the model, Imagineers mentioned how important water would be to Piston Peak. They noted that water is an integral part of the Rocky Mountains landscape, and would likewise be highlighted in Frontierland at Magic Kingdom, just in different ways than before.

One Imagineer joked that there are so many waterfalls they’d lost track of the total count–but there will be many water features throughout the land, giving a kinetic energy to the area so that it doesn’t feel like paving paradise to put up a parking lot.

Notably, the snow-capped mountain facing Liberty Square will feature a cascading waterfall down its side:

Imagineers drew specific attention to this mountain, and explained how it’s deliberately designed to preserve sightlines from Liberty Square.

To put this into perspective, the structure pictured above is the old Liberty Square Riverboat entrance. This is visible from the bridge that leads into Liberty Square from the Central Plaza by Cinderella Castle. Meaning there was the potential to see Cars zooming around from Main Street or within Liberty Square.

Thankfully, Imagineers informed us that you will not hear or see Cars from Main Street or coming over the Liberty Square Bridge. The main mountain is being built so that it blocks the Cars Rally Race attraction from Liberty Square and, by extension, everywhere else in the park. You cannot see the ‘Carified’ Piston Peak from this perspective.

The mountain looks more mound-like from the Liberty Square side. Rather than being reminiscent of the sharp peaks of the Rocky Mountains or the cartoonish features of Piston Peak, it’s less imposing and softer, for lack of a better term.

When discussing the model, the example Imagineers gave was Mount Prometheus at Tokyo DisneySea. Invoking Mysterious Island, an exemplar of themed design and worldbuilding, certainly offers some reassurance! That’s the gold standard.

In case you’re unfamiliar with it, Mount Prometheus is the icon of Tokyo DisneySea, and this ‘active’ volcano is visible from different ports of call throughout the park. How it looks varies dramatically based on the vantage. It’s menacing from Mysterious Island, whereas it appears much more “mound-like” from the cozy confines of Cape Cod.

The Imagineers working this project are laser focused on sightlines and how this Cars race plopped in the middle of Frontierland looks from the rest of the park. If they can pull off something on par with Prometheus, it’ll be a huge win.

During my time with the model, I repeatedly got down to guest level to see the sightlines for myself, and everything looked mostly good. Assuming they pull it off as built, Liberty Square and Frontierland should not look overtly ‘Carified’ from their main thoroughfares (or Haunted Mansion).

Although you can’t hear a static model, Imagineers also addressed the potential noise pollution of off-road Cars zooming around a rally race right outside colonial America. Thankfully, this is being taken into consideration.

Noise will be mitigated from Liberty Square and elsewhere via a variety of measures. This includes but is not limited to landscape buffers, the artificial audioscape of the attraction, and even little things like the pitch of track.

Imagineering has a full tool kit to help control the sound of the attraction and dampen how noise carries. The large mound on the Liberty Square side should definitely help with this. The Imagineers also shared that there are some portions of the track where the sound will be “celebrated,” but other areas where it’ll be minimized.

The Big Thunder Mountain Railroad side of the Piston Peak National Park will feature a totally different landscape than the Liberty Square side.

There’s going to be a newly-expanded geyser area that’ll tie into Big Thunder Mountain. New rainbow pools and pathways throughout this area will bring guests up close to the geysers–maybe even enough to spot subtle tire treads in some of them.

Then there’s the big geyser called “Old Tankful,” which is obviously inspired by Old Faithful, the iconic cone geyser in Yellowstone National Park. Old Tankful will be erupting periodically throughout the day, and guests will get to race around it.

In the center of the Piston Peak National Park is Ranger Headquarters building that will be the queue for the family fun attraction. If you squint, this looks a bit like Fort Langhorn, leading us to wonder whether Imagineering will preserve anything from the old structure or have this be a nod to Tom Sawyer Island.

This is what we’re assuming is a flat ride (given space constraints). The attraction has still yet to be revealed. Everything we’ve seen thus far, from model to Fun Map, has left this out. We can only assume this is going to be one of the reveals during the Parks Panel. Otherwise, it’s a real head-scratcher.

To the left of that is the Piston Peak National Park Lodge, the A-frame structure that draws inspiration from Old Faithful Inn and other U.S. National Park Lodges, and houses the queue for the Cars Rally Race attraction. That should be the largest and most iconic structure in the Cars miniland.

The Piston Peak model should convey just how lush and dense this Cars Land is going to be with trees, from the gigantic stump by the Ranger’s Station to the real ones lining the walkways. Perhaps that’s why they’re calling it Piston Peak National Park as opposed to Cars Land. Our sincere hope is that this miniland lives up to the last two words in its official name!

As well-established and hardcore dendrophiles, what we’re really wondering about is whether these will be mature trees or saplings that won’t provide shade for a couple decades and will bear little resemblance to this model upon opening.

Here’s hoping that many of the mature trees around Tom Sawyer Island and the backside of the Rivers of America were saved for transplanting. As we learned from Epic Universe (and World Celebration before that), mature trees are expensive, but can be make or break!

The model really reinforces just how lush and landscaped Piston Peak National Park will be. It’s obviously not the same unspoiled natural beauty of the Rivers of America, but the mix of Imagineered environments, water, and foliage could be a winning combination.

Of course, it’s still early and we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves. Even though models are usually much more accurate than concept art, they’re still not the same as the real thing. The jury is still out on Piston Peak until we can step foot in it.

One thing about which I have zero doubts whatsoever is the mountains in Piston Peak National Park.

Imagineering has a clear and demonstrable track record when it comes to rockwork. Cars Land, Star Wars: Galaxy’s Edge, Pandora – World of Avatar, New Fantasyland, and Fantasy Springs all come to mind as exemplars. No matter what you think of these lands as a whole, the “natural” environments are undeniably awesome. Even Moana’s Journey of Water punches well above its weight when it comes to rockwork.

The man behind the magic of this rockwork is Imagineer Zsolt Hormay. He does not miss, and if he’s helming the rockwork team behind the Cars land at Magic Kingdom, it’ll look great. Obviously different from the Cadillac Mountain Range at DCA, but equally fantastic.

I look forward to sitting in my rocking chair near Country Bear Musical Jamboree and gazing out across the snow-capped peaks. If there’s anyone who can pull off the Mount Prometheus effect described above, it’s Zsolt Hormay. The Imagineering team for Cars already sounds strong, so here’s hoping he makes the lineup.

Seeing the new model of Piston Peak National Park model and hearing from the Imagineers leading the project has me feeling better about a Cars miniland being added to Frontierland at Magic Kingdom.

As I’ve learned more about this project and the Imagineers bringing it to life, I’ve gone from quite critical to skeptical but hoping for the best. Now, I’m somewhere between cautiously optimistic and flat-out optimistic.

Piston Peak is going to add an incredibly detailed and lush landscape to Frontierland, and will add depth and dimensionality to the environment that wasn’t there before. Obviously, it’ll be very different from what was there before, but it should be a massive asset to this half of Magic Kingdom.

Turning back to Cars Land at Disney California Adventure (above), Piston Peak is obviously totally different than that when you compare them side by side. I’m nevertheless mentioning this because I overheard two different members of the media asking Imagineers about that, which is a question I figured the model itself answers.

Honestly, if you asked me two years ago why Walt Disney World wasn’t just building Radiator Springs at Disney’s Hollywood Studios, as had been the plan nearly a decade ago, I would’ve glibly replied: “cheapness.”

If you followed up with whether I’d prefer a clone of Radiator Springs or this, I would’ve taken the clone in an instant. I would still hazard a guess that Piston Peak National Park will be cheaper (inflation-adjusted) than Cars Land in California. However, I no longer think I’d take Cars Land cloned at DHS over Piston Peak. It’s hard to answer that hypothetical since I can’t step into a model and ride the rides.

The salient point, though, is that not only does this model look fantastic, but it also looks perfectly tailored to my tastes. Moreover, that perhaps I’d prefer two original lands based on Cars than Radiator Springs times two.

One thing that I cannot get over is just how dissimilar the two look. In fact, if you asked me to compare this to its closest counterpart at DCA, the land I’d pick wouldn’t be Cars Land at all. It would be Grizzly Peak. This is obviously an area based on Cars, as will be clear from the fact that guests are riding around in Cars on both rides.

However, the placemaking and themed design look much more National Park-coded to me than anything I can recall from the Cars film franchise. Personally, I really appreciate that. If this model is reproduced as-is in Magic Kingdom, it will fit Frontierland.

Of course, we can still mourn the Rivers of America removal, but at the same time, Walt Disney World has its foot on the gas pedal with this project. Given that and the practical reality that Magic Kingdom currently has a Giant Dirt Pit on the west half of a park that puts the OG EPCOT Dirt Pit to shame, we should all want the best possible outcome.

Suffice to say, the Piston Peak National Park model is incredibly reassuring, and is going to win over a lot of the skeptics. I strongly suspect that many of those same skeptics will become outright optimists once they hear from the Imagineers at the helm, as there’s a talented team behind this that should deliver. Stay tuned to the Parks Panel for more!

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YOUR THOUGHTS

What do you think of the Piston Peak National Park model? Pleasantly surprised by the water features and the rest of the natural environment? Thoughts on the consideration Imagineers are giving to the sightlines and creating a lush landscape? Cautiously optimistic? Do you agree or disagree with our assessments? Any questions we can help you answer? Hearing your feedback–even when you disagree with us–is both interesting to us and helpful to other readers, so please share your thoughts below in the comments!