Stephen A. Smith Goes on Epic 'Cars' Rant, Disses Lightning McQueen on Show

Don't challenge Stephen A. Smith on animated car racing without getting your facts straight.

The boisterous ESPN personality was taking calls for the Tuesday episode of his podcast when "Danny in Wisconsin" chimed in to ask Smith about the Cars films. Specifically, the caller wanted to know where the First Take host ranked Lightning McQueen—the fictional race car from the popular Pixar film franchise—among Michael Jordan, Tom Brady and the other greatest athletes of all time. Because why not?

Sports and film fans alike have come together on X (formerly Twitter) in recent days to debate the best racer from the Cars universe. And Smith argues about football, basketball and a variety of other sports on a daily basis. But this was probably the first time Smith has weighed in on the folks (cars?) from Radiator Springs.

But, oddly enough, Smith had a long answer ready to go.

"I would tell you he wouldn't be the GOAT," Smith said. "How are you gonna be the GOAT? Because you're talking about the movie Cars, right? You're talking about the movie Cars? When you talk about Strip 'the King' Weathers or Lightning McQueen, they're both tied with seven Piston Cups."

He went on: "Strip Weathers, you forgot about him? How can you be the GOAT if you got somebody who is tied with you? Sorry, that ain't gonna work. I know you tried to catch me with that. You didn't think I knew about Cars, did you?"

The segment was either rehearsed or Smith knows a thing or two about Lightning McQueen and company. Which may not be surprising since Disney owns both ESPN and Pixar. "Danny in Wisconsin" tried to challenge the Stephen A. Smith Show host on the topic again after the lengthy response.

Smith wasn't having it.

"I am not about to sit here with a grown-a** man and argue about the movie Cars," he said.

But he did for a little longer. The two continued to go back and forth about Piston Cups and which era of race cars was better in the universe. Because of course they did.

Smith, 56, then asked the caller for his age, which he said was 21. The conversation then pivoted to the Fast and Furious film franchise because apparently they hadn't had enough car talk up to that point. The pair finally agreed on something—that Fast Five was one of their favorite installments in that series. But then Smith let out a little more tongue-in-cheek fury.

"My point is if you're gonna argue with me about something, how about it not be an animated movie like Cars?" Smith asked the caller. "How about it be something like Fast and Furious? I would have appreciated the question better."

"Stephen A., Cars is as real to little kids," the caller started to say before the host loudly fired back, "You're not a little kid. You're 21. You would have a point if you were 7 years old calling me. You're 21 years old. What are you doing, wearing a diaper? Goodbye, man."

Shortly afterward, Smith retweeted a user on X (formerly Twitter), who said he was "Danny in Wisconsin." So the argument was all in good fun. And other social media users seemed to enjoy the conversation just as much as they did.

Benjamin Solak of The Ringer quoted a video of the interaction and said that he wants "to be Stephen A. Smith when I grow up."

Smith's ESPN colleague Mina Kimes also quoted the video and said simply, "This is cinema." And user @davidsitrick chimed in, "I say without hyperbole that this is maybe the single funniest clip I've ever seen in my life."