3 Year Old Boy LOVES His Cars

I don't know, I'll ask my son with a 45 matchbox cars in his BED and another and ten in the shower, and 25 on the couch and ......

I love boys! They are so fun. Normal.

Give him lots of ways to play with them make a track, buildings, a ramp into a basket...

He's not just playing with his cars, he is learning about his world!
Relationships, cartography, physics...

If it's not normal, then my son is a lunatic!!!

OMG, this is totally NORMAL!
Boys... like cars. They like Super Hero stuff, they like Dinosaurs, they like building stuff/blocks.... and yes, pretend playing is GOOD.... it is developmental based and it teaches them things about themselves and their world and concepts. And it means your child is normal.

They also like "good guy" "bad guy" stuff, which is also developmental based. Read this article about play/pretend playing:
http://www.scholastic.com/parents/resources/article/creat...

AND boys also LOVE to make all kinds of sound effects!

My son is now 6 and he still LOVES cars and all that stuff.

My tip is: get a few plastic bin containers... to put it all in.
At this age, they also "categorize" things and this is also developmental based and good. Normal.
And teach him, to put his cars IN the plastic bin, after he is done playing.

My son, has hundreds of cars/super heroes/blocks/figures (mostly from a generous Aunty), and... if he is wanting a certain one, he knows... where it is. Even amongst all his other figures/cars.

You just described my kiddo, whom I feel is normal and somewhat of a genius. ;:-)

Yep--they are one of a few toys that I don't mind spending $ on because I my oldest (6) will play with them from sunrise to sunset. (At the moment my 6 yr old is laying under the train table with Cars cars of all sizes chanting "We love Mater, We love Mater!!")

My neighbor's kid is like that with Thomas trains--TOTALLY obsessed.

My middle son (almost 4) is like that with knights and castles, so we have a healthy investment in Imaginext castles.

If it is not normal, he suffers from the same affliction as my son :-) I personally think it is very normal. My son was obsessed with trains and cars at that age (still likes cars and just turned 5). He would play with blocks and puzzles too but by far, most of his play was as you described or pushing trains around the track :-)

normal 3 year old boy behavior. some like cars, some like trains, but they all love wheels.

Absolutely normal.

Buy a few rolls of painter's tape to create race tracks all over the place. Blue painter's tape won't leave residue. :-)

Totally normal! But then this will pass and he'll be obsessed with something else. Once your son starts school he'll be obsessed with whatever his friends are playing with. We went through Power Rangers, Beyblades, and we're now obessed with Minecraft. It's a journey!

Totally normal. My son has been obsessed with firemen for a year. His focus has shifted to all rescue vehicles, and now he is obsessed with rescue bots, but yes, all day long, every day, transportation vehicles of some sort.

Yes, and don't be concerned if he DOESN'T stop liking cars. My middle child was obsessed with Disney CARS when the movie came out, I think he was like 2 or 3? Now he is almost 11 and STILL loves Disney CARS and collects them. But he also likes all kinds of normal boy stuff, legos, nerf guns, sports, building forts, blowing things up, etc. etc.
I also want to encourage you that if your child has a certain "bent", it might be God given and turn into a career they love. I was obsessed with surfing and skateboarding and the beach/ocean and ended up having a pretty successful stint as a competitive surfer.
My oldest son always used to go crazy in the car when I played mix music like the Beastie Boys and is now obsessed with electronic dance music and will be interning with Sony Music.
My middle son is still a gearhead, and when the time comes, we will probably encourage him to get a business degree in college and start his own car repair business if that is still what he loves. So don't worry too much about "obsessions" as long as they are healthy, it might be the way they are "pre-wired" for success :)
At any rate, just enjoy the boy being a boy.
Now I've got a girl and all she wants to do all day is try to dress the cat in Build A Bear clothes and play Barbies and steal my makeup. She is 3. And as you can imagine, I was a tomboy, so this is pretty funny to have a girlie girl.

Totally normal. And if he is horizontal on the cold floor with his cheek pressed to the ground for hours and hours, staring at his car (train/tractor/truck) while he drives it around in circles ... normal too. Enjoy!

Of course this is normal.

ALL my friends with boys saw their boys go through this stage at about this age. If not with cars, then with earth movers (like at construction sites) or trains or fire trucks. Total "obsession" and totally, utterly normal.

Be aware that he eventually will be less into the cars but then may move on to another all-consuming love he will do until you go nuts -- Legos, Star Wars (my friend's son was all Star Wars, all the time, nothing else, in about grades two through four), whatever. It is normal. They are figuring out what they like and they are building their imaginations. You mention other things he might be doing (puzzles, painting, drawing, etc.) that are great, but remember-- they don't involve the noise and movement he craves right now. You could always try puzzles of pictures of cars, hide and seek with his cars, real cooking alongside you that ends up in "car" cupcakes with sugar cars on top (there really are such decorations...). Have fun with it and yes, do encourage some other things, but he is just fine.

Yes, it's normal. He has a favorite type of toy. Nothing wrong with that. My son loved vehicles when he was a little guy and could have played with them for hours at a time.

Completely normal.

Yep!
Totally normal!
Our son just LOVED his Matchbox cars!
He'd build towns for them with his Legos.
He has quite a collection of firetrucks (all sizes) and he'd crash the cars in his towns and his firetrucks would 'respond' to the emergency.
He'd get his ladder trucks and pumper trucks and he had police cars and police helicopters - quite the little emergency response team he had going there!
He was still doing this by 7 or 8 years old before he finally outgrew it.

Yep. My twin boys love their cars. They are mostly into matchbox/hot wheel style now, but also like some of the bigger cars/trucks that they have. They like to line them up and pretend all the cars are in traffic.

OMG, YES!!! Totally normal :) My son went through period from like 2 to 3.5 where he pretty much always had a car in each hand. Even in the tub. Even in bed! And sometimes he would get attached to 1 car and then lose it 14 times a day and we would all scramble to help find "the green truck" or whichever was the favorite at the time. He played with cars about 95% of the time. He is 4.5 now and its still his favorite, but has subsided.