Hi just saw this and thought it would be a great way to animate cars into the still images people are making for the contest.
Seeing is believing, sometimes.
http://www.videocopilot.net/blog/2013/04/simple-car-rig-in-element-3d/
Pretty freaking cool!
Yes, I have Element 3D and it is super fast but only works inside After Effects. Casting shadows is possible but another addon called Elementary does great shadows. I'm working on a SCI FI movie in which I have a ship casting a shadow on a Terragen background.