I've been pondering about this for a while and this is based off the time travel mater short– au where Stanley doesn't stay in carburetor county due to the lack of customers, thus never beginning the settlement of Radiator Springs. With no town in the future, where would've the townsfolk wound up instead??
Probably not, if i’m being brutally honest.
If the circumstances of Lightning’s disappearance are the same, then he might have ended up in some other town along rt.66. Considering that this other town would most likely not be exactly like Radiator Springs, he might’ve gotten to California a lot quicker. With the knowledge of her backstory, Sally would either be dead or in California. She stumbled across Radiator Springs by chance, and without the town their she might have died in the desert without fuel or hydration. I know nothing of how Mater got there, nor why he was there in the first place, but I can guarantee that he wouldn’t be in the desert alone, wandering about by himself. Maybe he would come across McQueen in a different situation.I don’t really know where Doc would be in this AU. I assume he would still run away from racing like he did in canon, but I don’t know where he’d end up. In a perfect world, he’d end up in the same town that McQueen came across in Radiator Springs’ absence. Flo and Ramone would have opened up a diner somewhere else. I don’t know if Ramone would still run a body shop, but I think that’s pretty likely. Luigi and Guido would have moved to the United States, like they did in canon, but i believe they would set up their shop somewhere else. A tire shop in the middle of nowhere seems pretty sketchy, and I think they would recognize that. I think that the Sheriff would be working for another jurisdiction, still somewhere along rt.66. I don’t know much of his backstory, so I can’t draw any conclusions off of that. I think that the same would go for Red. Fillmore doesn’t have a backstory, as far as I know, but I would think that he would move around a lot without settling down in Radiator Springs. One day, he might be in California, and the next he might decide to go to New Mexico. He might come across the others in this timeline, but would only speak to them in passing.Sarge would also move around a lot, considering he was in the army. Presumably, he would keep getting re-stationed, maybe occasionally interacting with the others. I don’t know if he would ever meet Fillmore in this timeline, maybe once in passing. Depending on the time that Stanley abandons Radiator Springs, Lizzie might stay with them. They live a long and happy life together. But, on the other hand, Lizzie never meets Stanley. They both live long, but not with each other.
I honestly think that all of this is the number one worst possible outcome.
But, if you want to get into quantum mechanics and multiverse and stuff, each character might recognize each other; deja-vu of sorts. For example, McQueen is in the town that isn’t Radiator Springs, and there’s something about that Sheriff that he can’t quite put his finger on. Or, Fillmore hypothesizes to the military man sitting across from him at a diner that they knew each other in a past life. The possibilities are endless with this AU.
