Radiator Springs Racers Refurbishment & Early Halloween Start at Disney California Adventure
Ride refurbishments and temporary attraction closures are a fact of life at the Disney Parks. Ditto downtime and delays, which are unplanned and unannounced. This update covers a mix of these problems, with an emphasis on the upcoming Radiator Springs Racers refurbishment at Disney California Adventure. (Updated August 15, 2025.)
As reflected in recent updates to the 2025-2026 Disneyland Refurbishment Calendar, increased maintenance has been occurring after a few years of lighter refurbishment schedules. This winter was jam-packed with closures–including high profile attractions during the heart of Spring Break season–as Disney attempted to get the parks in tip-top shape before the start of Disneyland’s 70th Anniversary celebration.
This probably isn’t going to win me any friends, but Disneyland should add even more attractions to the closure calendar. There are numerous rides that have been experiencing above-average downtime, and others that are operating but not show-ready. The reason for this is that preventative maintenance was not occurring as it should–which is the ‘best of both worlds’ solution, as it means overnight work that has minimal impact to guests. I guess that’s what happens when you let go of a bunch of old-timers who held the institutional knowledge and lived-experience necessary to maintain and fix so many of these legacy attractions! (But I digress…)
Radiator Springs Racers Refurbishment (Closing & Reopening Dates)
Anyway, today’s big news is that the top-rated Cars Land attraction at Disney California Adventure will be temporarily closing in a couple of months for routine maintenance. The Radiator Springs Racers refurbishment will start on August 18, 2025 and the Cars Land headliner will be closed for a little over one month.
Disneyland has now announced that the Cars closure will continue through September 25, and Radiator Springs Racers reopens on September 26, 2025. Note that this return date is subject to change, which often does happen with a refurbishment of this scale and scope.
Usually, Disney gives itself a bit of a buffer and attractions are more likely to reopen ahead of schedule as opposed to be delayed, but we’ve seen both happen in the last year. So if Radiator Springs Racers is a must-do for you, we’d recommend pushing your visit off for a few days–ideally into early October 2025–just to be safe.
The refurbishment of Radiator Springs Racers is said to be a standard one, with a scope of work including but not limited to track resurfacing, lighting upgrades, and audio/visual updates. Late last month, Disneyland filed a construction permit to upgrade all show lighting to LED fixtures for Radiator Springs Racers, and also upgrade other audio, video, and network updates throughout the attraction.
Since 2022, Radiator Springs Racers has closed for 4 separate refurbishments, including 2 in 2023. The Cars Land headliner last closed for a brief refurbishment from February 26-March 1 last year, and was down from August 18-27 in 2023.
Prior to these 4 refurbishments, Radiator Springs Racers only had one scheduled closure–a three-day stretch in 2013–during its first decade of operations. Of course, it’s not uncommon for newer rides to not need as much maintenance, but the change is nevertheless notable.
The refurbishment of Radiator Spring Racers would be notable no matter when it were happening. There’s a reason why it’s our #1 ride in DCA and #5 in all of Disneyland Resort on our List Ranking All 68 Attractions at Disneyland & California Adventure. Honestly, #5 might be a bit too low, but it’s hard to beat the OGs at Disneyland.
Radiator Springs Racers is one of the few attractions I make a point of doing every single visit. That’s happening a bit less now that we have a toddler, but the Single Rider line is a huge win for us, especially during tourist season when lower tier APs are blocked out.
In this case, the closure of Radiator Springs Racers is even more notable because it’s happening right before Halloween Time at Disneyland starts on August 22, 2025. Granted, that seasonal event has been moved forward strategically so that it now starts as schools go back into session during what was previously off-season, but what we observed last year was elevated attendance throughout August and into early September due to Halloween Time and ticket deals.
Due to the RSR refurbishment, it’s possible that ‘feels like’ crowds will be higher during the first month of Oogie Boogie Bash – A Disney Halloween Party dates. Radiator Springs Racers helps tremendously with soaking up crowds during that hard ticket event, and unless Disneyland adjusts ticket sales downward, that could present an issue. Just something to be aware of when choosing your dates for that event.
On a similar note, the same will occur with wait times throughout Disney California Adventure during daily ops. It’s not just us–Radiator Springs Racers is far and away the most popular ride at DCA. During this refurbishment, wait times will increase across the board by a few minutes, with a disproportionate impact at Incredicoaster, Soarin’ and Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: Breakout!
Halloween Starts Early at DCA
Although Halloween Time at Disneyland starts on August 22, Oogie Boogie Bash at DCA kicks off on August 17, 2025. Ahead of both, Disney California Adventure has started celebrating spook season even earlier. Halloween in Cars Land is now underway, as the citizens of Radiator Springs don their Halloween costumes and decorate their homes to celebrate “Haul-O-Ween.”
For the Haul-O-Ween overlay in Cars Land, Mater’s Junkyard Jamboree becomes Mater’s Graveyard JamBOOree and Luigi’s Rollickin’ Roadsters transforms into Luigi’s Honkin’ Haul-O-Ween. Both of these attraction overlays are now running daily at DCA through October 31, 2025.
But wait, there’s more! The biggest attraction overlay has also started early, as Guardians of the Galaxy — Mission: BREAKOUT! transforms into Guardians of the Galaxy — Monsters After Dark each day. This means you can experience two versions of this attraction in the same day.
Guardians of the Galaxy – Monsters After Dark starts daily at 3pm. Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission BREAKOUT closes at 2pm for the switch. The Monsters after Dark B-side version of the attraction continues to run daily through October 31, 2025.
Speaking of those specific rides, we have more to share on stealth refurbishments, downtime & delays at DCA…
Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: Breakout
You might recall that earlier this year, Guardians of the Galaxy – Mission: Breakout! was closed for about a week during Spring Break.
While the scope of work was never revealed, we know what it was/is based on a permit Disney filed for the project. That involved the replacement of brake and drive control cabinets across all shafts, as well as additional work in one of the shafts. It’s unclear how long this will take, but based on the description, it sounded to us like a project that could last several weeks–if not months. Despite that, it was scheduled for a closure of less than a week. Something didn’t add up.
We also cautioned that work could continue to be done in phases while the ride is operational. It’s entirely possible to take one shaft down at a time for a ‘stealth’ refurbishment, which is exactly what Tower of Terror at Walt Disney World received a couple of years ago. It decreases ride capacity, but it keeps the attraction operational. It was possible that operations wanted Mission Breakout open for the busy spring break season, so they did a week of downtime followed by however long it takes of a stealth refurbishment.
In the months since, we noticed that one elevator shaft was down on Mission Breakout with regularity. Along with that average wait times increased for Mission Breakout, and Lightning Lane availability was more difficult and competitive. One day, I was doing Early Entry field testing and made the mistake of starting at Mission Breakout when two elevator shafts were down. Big mistake.
In any case, the above is past tense because, over the last week or so, we’ve noticed that this stealth refurbishment appears to be finished. On both of our most recent visits, Mission Breakout was firing on all cylinders and operating all shafts. The posted wait time was reasonable, and the actual wait was even shorter. (Can’t speak to Lightning Lanes.)
It’s entirely possible that Disney paused the stealth refurbishment due to the end of the ticket deal and last minute rush of that and influx of demand due to the end of blockouts, return of Tier 0 ticket prices, etc. So we don’t want to get ahead of ourselves, but our assumption is that the stealth refurbishment has wrapped up, with the goal of finishing before Halloween season. Disney starting the ‘Monsters After Dark’ overlay reinforces this notion.
Soarin’ Theater Occasionally Offline
Soarin’ also had a long wait because it is also undergoing a refurbishment to one of its theaters. This isn’t really a new development, and honestly, I’m not even sure whether “stealth refurbishment” is the right term here. It seems like Soarin’ has frequently had one theater out of commission for the last two years.
I remember when formulating our original Lightning Lane Multi-Pass Rankings at DCA, we placed Soarin’ near the top due to this. It’s hard to say whether maintenance teams are actively working on the theater or what, exactly, is happening. Either way, it’s again worth drawing your attention to because Soarin’s wait times can balloon as a result. It also means they’re more likely to be accurate, and that LLMP availability is likely to be lower.
Finally, I’d just add that–subjectively–Mission Breakout and Soarin’ are two of the more excruciating rides to experience at reduced capacity. Even when both are at 100% capacity, I feel like the line can move glacially slow, with unexpectedly long waits (including via the Lightning Lane) if you get unlucky with load cycles. Perhaps I’m just incredibly impatient, but this feels interminably long when they’re in ‘stealth refurbishment’ mode. I won’t be doing either until they’re operating at full tilt.
Walkway Closure
Finally, in a tangentially-related Cars Land news, the walkway between Radiator Springs Racers and Avengers Campus is blocked by two sets of construction walls. The area between the two lands is out of commission for the expansion of Avengers Campus that’ll add two new attractions. The walls blocking this path are expected to remain until sometime in 2026.
The path in question connects Avengers Campus to Cars Land right by Radiator Springs Curios and Luigi’s Rollickin’ Roadsters. It’s also near the new-ish Red’s Community Garden overflow seating area for the Cozy Cones (trying to cram as much previously-uncovered news into this one update!).
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Your Thoughts
What do you think of the Radiator Springs Racers ride refurbishment? Disappointed that it coincides with the start of Halloween Time at Disneyland, or do you think the post-summer “off-season” is the best time for such downtime? Have you experienced stealth refurbishments at Soarin or Mission Breakout? Run into downtime & delays at DCA? Do you agree or disagree with our assessment? 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!
I suspect one reason why they never publish refurb dates more than 6 weeks in advance is because they don’t want people to have enough time to change their travel plans.
6 weeks before my first-ever trip to Disneyland, I had already paid for tickets, hotel, and flights. I was nervously checking the schedule every day, hoping my 2-3 most important reasons for going would actually be open that week. Indiana Jones Adventure cut it uncomfortably close!
I think Disney would rather have guests be disappointed Radiator Springs Racers is closed than find out what would happen if they announced it any earlier.
Then again, with the economics of the 2020s, maybe they really CAN’T plan these things more than 6 weeks in advance?
Yet another reason why the Tokyo resort is leaps and bounds better than the US Disney Parks. Tokyo has a true preventative maintenance program in place. They don’t wait for rides to have issues before they do a refurb. They plan and publish their ride refurb schedule months – sometimes more than a year – in advance, and give themselves plenty of time to do the refurbishment correctly. They schedule everything on rotation – regardless of condition. The result is longer closure periods, but it also means rides are working properly when they are open. People always rave about the superior condition of the attractions at the Tokyo resort – this is reason #1.
US Disney doesn’t do preventative maintenance. I’d argue they do reactive maintenance. They wait until something is in such bad shape that it’s almost not able to run – milking every last cent out of it before they are forced to spend money on the refurb – and then they plan a closure to fix it. A sloppy, penny-pinching approach that results in all the broken effects we see regularly.
Thankfully Tokyo hasn’t lost sight of this…at least not yet.
Yes, I really wish Disneyland had their act together like this. It’s frustrating to plan a trip months in advance and then have to keep your fingers crossed the rides won’t be announced as going down for maintenance. For the latest announcement of Big Thunder going down for extended maintenance starting Sept. 2, we had to buy a single day Disneyland ticket for our arrival day just so we can ride the ride. Our official full day wasn’t supposed to start until Sept. 2, the day they close the ride!
100% agreed.
I do think many domestic fans would be annoyed by the sheer number of refurbishments that TDR does (major ones are virtually unavoidable, no matter when you visit), but what DLR and WDW fans don’t fully appreciate is just how much unscheduled downtime happens as a result of less preventative maintenance.
Personally, I would gladly take knowing the refurbishment schedule far in advance, even if it means more closures. I’d rather they appear on the calendar to plan around, as opposed to popping up last minute.
FYI – The first paragraph has a link to the “2025-2026 Disneyland Refurbishment Calendar,” however, clicking the link takes you to the 2025 WDW Refurb calendar. Thanks for the great content!
The hours on the Disneyland app now go through August 18 and Radiator Springs Racers was not added. Is it still closing for refurbishment?
We are going to DCA on Sept 22, my chances are really low of experiencing RSR. What do you think are my odds?
when we visited in January there were a lot of rides down in both parks, some with multiple downtimes over 3 days. agree that maintenance is lagging.
I know you’ve written that you can pull off Web Slingers to Mission: Breakout to rope dropping RSR during early entr and that’s been my plan. Assuming Mission: Breakout is still working with an elevator down in August (we’re scheduled to go to DCA on 8/15), should we cut Mission: Breakout from the early entry plan and do it later? We’re flying in from the East Coast and we need to knock everything out by dinner for the sakes of our kids (we’re not averse to paying for Multipass if we have to to accomplish that, but I would reeaaaaaalllly rather not pay for Single Pass for RSR if we can avoid it.)
Also, given how hush hush they are about shuttering elevators, will it be easy to know if they’re at full operation by then?
I overheard that the current stealth refurb for Soarin is because they’re replacing all the seatbelts, one theater at a time. It sounded like it could take a couple months.
Brutal that RSR will be down with the RunDisney crowds the week after Labor Day. We’ll be part of that crowd there for the races. Certain to be extra busy at DCA that weekend!
Great point about the runDisney race–that’s a huge bummer for those fans. At least it’s not a D23 Expo year, I guess!
I did not realize the RunDisney event was happening the week after Labor Day. We plan to be at Disneyland from September 2-4. How much will this event affect the crowds at Disneyland during that time? Radiator Springs closure combined with this event is definitely making me consider moving our reservation.
The first race (a 5K) is on Friday the 5th, so anyone doing that race will need to come in on Thursday the 4th to attend the race expo at Disneyland Hotel and pick up their race bib. We’re arriving the 3rd, which is probably a little earlier than the average person, but still will add to the crowds a bit I would expect.
Tom, thanks for this update. I know you mentioned a little over a month, but do you think it could go into October as well. We have a one day trip on Oct 10th set and were hoping to finally experience this ride for the first time since we won’t have the toddlers with us on this trip 🙂
It’s impossible to say for sure at this point, but I would expect Disney will do everything possible–even if that means a lot of overtime pay–to get this done by October. That weekend, in particular, is the start of Fall Break and it’s a huge time for families from Utah and Nevada to visit.
I would be shocked if the closure is still happening on October 10. Doesn’t mean it’s a 0% chance, as things can go wrong, get extended, etc. But you *should* be safe.
Oh no, this was one of the main reasons we were visting Disneyland in September! 🙁
Wow, Radiator Racers #1 in DCA!? I might put it in the top 3 in DCA if for some reason it was a walk on, but when you take the queue into consideration as part of the attraction, as you should since you spend more time in it then the ride itself, Racers is easily beaten by Guardians of the Galaxy. Then again, Tom put Roger Rabbit (Great queue, fine ride) above Space Mountain and Big Thunder. Lists are just opinion of the author, but I think 99% of people would disagree with that.
Radiator Racers is the one E-Ticket I skip on many visits. Just not worth a long wait in the sun. I haven’t even gone on it during oogie boogie bash, because even the shorten wait times of 30-40 minutes isn’t worth my precious party time.
My ranking of Car Toon Spin above SM and BTMRR is definitely an unpopular opinion. So is yours that RSR “might” be top 3 as a walk-on. 🙂
Bad timing on the Radiator Springs Racers refurbishment for my upcoming visit. I’m taking my mother to Disneyland the week following Labor Day. She’s been to Disneyworld several times, but never to Disneyland. Radiator Springs Racers is one of the Disneyland rides that she was looking forward to riding. Ideally, want to have all the Disneyland specific major attractions available… might have to look into shifting our visit to a later date.