It's a good time to talk about car tunes, with "Cars" — a Disney film starring animated Chevrolets, Plymouths and a Hudson Hornet — in theaters now.

Songs about cars and driving have been a big part of American pop culture for more than a century — "My Merry Little Oldsmobile" was a 1905 smash, and today's rappers continue to celebrate the joy of fancy wheels.

But before we unveil some popular tunes about cars and driving, we give the "Cars" soundtrack a quick review:

Like so many modern movie soundtracks, the music accompanying "Cars" suffers the sound of executive committee. Carefully scripted, cautiously executed, it's cartoon music minus much of the color — and fun.

The film's soundtrack album, out since Tuesday, kicks off with "Real Gone," a standard Sheryl Crow original graced with a catchy hook but clogged with forced auto imagery unrelated to the film. The familiar "Route 66" appears in two forms: its vintage Chuck Berry model and an updated, musically unnecessary rendering by easygoing popster John Mayer.

Featured are a pair of warm originals by country crooner Brad Paisley, along with a limp note-for-note reading of Tom Cochrane's "Life Is a Highway" by Rascal Flatts. The disc's second half is composed of selections from the film score by Randy Newman, Disney's go-to composer, who provides a whimsical set of songs that will become memorable only to parents forced to endure endless viewings of the "Cars" DVD.

"Lightning McQueen's Fast-Tracks," a companion album emceed by the film's animated star, features a collection of songs more strictly car-oriented than the soundtrack. A handful of new compositions are joined by older material, some of it pulled from admirably obscure vaults ("Black and White Thunderbird," "My Old Car") and voiced by Disney's in-house performers in a musical set custom built for the young 'uns.

Now, with that said, when you think of cars and music, here are a few vintage tunes that may come to mind: