Cars 1?
Well. I still think Inside Out is better, but only slightly. I mean... The story of cars can definitely match it blow for blow but... The anthropomorphic cars thing just creeped me right out at times.
Hey, do I spy a little pinstripe tattoo there?
I literally cringed at that scene. I mean... He's like... Checking out her car ass or something? What even? What even is that?
But as a story? Yeah. It's definitely a solid one and it could definitely match Inside Out, in my opinion.
I mean, I personally think Inside Out is a bit better, but that's just my opinion.
Cars 2?
No. Just no. I mean, it's not as bad as people make it out to be but it was not better than Inside Out. Not by a long shot.
I mean, it's like they looked at Cars and thought "Now what if we took out the characters and the emotion that made Cars good, and instead made an entire movie out of larry the cable guy comedic relief!"
It's like if they made Inside Out 2, cut out the human story entirely, removed the relationship between joy and sadness and all the related character growth, and made the entire plot about the Mind Workers becoming secret agents.
I think it's that Pixar is just bad at making sequels. They get these wonderful ideas and tell very sweet, emotional stories with very beautiful endings.
Then they screw it up with cash grabby sequels that fail to capture the sweetness and beauty of the original.
For what it's worth, Toy Story 3 was really good (I did not care for 2. I think it was the weakest of the 3) so hopefully Cars 3 will pick us back up.
Also I am terrified for The Incredibles 2 for this very reason. If they do it well, it's going to be really good, if they do it poorly it's going to be really bad.
My hope is that they'll age all the kids up ten or so years and make the plot be about family. Changing as your kids become adults and all that. A new way of looking at what made the first one good. The relationship between family.
I'm afraid it's just going to be a bunch of stupid low-brow jokes like Cars 2 with a mediocre plot behind it.
TL:DR - Cars is like the Despicable Me of the franchise and it can totally match Inside Out in my opinion.
Cars 2 is like the Minions of the franchise and it is not even close.