"Life Is a Highway" also peaked at number six on the US Billboard Hot 100 chart in August 1992 and reached the top two in Australia and New Zealand the same year.

The song was covered by Chris LeDoux for his 1998 album One Road Man and Rascal Flatts in 2006 for the Cars soundtrack.

Many of the shots are in familiar locations along the Dinosaur Trail, including Cochrane playing guitar amid the Hoodoos and the couple, Kait Shane and Brennan Elliott, running around the car while it rides the Bleriot Ferry across the Red Deer River.

It also features an older man (gas station attendant), a couple (tall man, short wife), two women (Jacqueline and Joyce Robbins) from an Anabaptist religious order (Alberta has a population of Hutterites), and two First Nations men, one wearing a baseball cap with the words "Oka Standoff" printed on it, referring to the Oka Crisis (a land dispute between a group of Mohawk people and the town of Oka, Quebec).

Clips from the video appear in a Family Guy episode, "The Woof of Wall Street", with Brian and Stewie dancing along.

The music video for the song, directed by Michael Salomon,[citation needed] takes place on multiple roads and highways as well as a blue and red static themed room.

In 2005, American country band Rascal Flatts recorded a cover of the song for the Pixar animated film Cars, which was released on June 9, 2006.

The song sold a large quantity of digital downloads, leading to a number seven peak on the Billboard Hot 100 (one position lower than Cochrane's original version).

The instrumental of the Rascal Flatts' cover version was prominently featured in the Top Gear: US Special, which aired February 11, 2007.

The music video portrays the three band members pulling into a drive-in theater driving three vintage vehicles.