Is there a better soundtrack to a road trip than country music? The answer is likely no. For decades, country music has been rich with songs that are perfect for everything from a short drive to a cross-country road trip. We found five country anthems that belong on every road trip playlist across the United States.

“On The Road Again” by Willie Nelson

There isn’t a better road song, in any genre, than Willie Nelson’s “On The Road Again“. Released in 1980 from the Honeysuckle Rose soundtrack, which also starred Nelson, the song says in part, “On the road again / I just can’t wait to get on the road again / The life I love is making music with my friends / And I can’t wait to get on the road again.”

It was director Sydney Pollack who asked if Nelson could do a song about being on the road.

“They were looking for songs for the movie, and they asked me if I had any idea,” Nelson remembers (via Far Out). “I said, ‘What do you want the song to say?’ And Sydney said, ‘Can it be something about being on the road?’broo

“It just started to click,” he continues. “I said, ‘You mean like, ‘On the road again, I can’t wait to get on the road again?’ They said, ‘That’s great. What’s the melody?’ I said, ‘I don’t know yet.’”

“Red Dirt Road” by Brooks & Dunn

Kix Brooks and Ronnie Dunn wrote “Red Dirt Road“, which is the title of Brooks & Dunn’s eighth studio album. “Red Dirt Road” celebrates everything about going home, via the red dirt road.

“It’s where I drank my first beer / It’s where I found Jesus,” Brooks & Dunn sing. “Where I wrecked my first car / I tore it all to pieces / I learned the path to Heaven / Is full of sinners and believers / Learned that happiness on Earth / Ain’t just for high achievers / I’ve learned, I’ve come to know / There’s life at both ends of that red dirt road.“

“I remember it was after a show, and Kix stepped up on the bus,” Dunn recalls to American Songwriter. “The bus was running and getting ready to leave. … This happens a lot. We’d get a record finished, and I wanted to reel everything into a concept or kind of hang a stamp on it. I thought we needed something like ‘Red Dirt Road’. Use that as the title. It was a road, the red dirt road, in Arkansas that my cousins and all of us lived on. It led from Rural Route Three, which was East Main highway out of El Dorado, down to my cousin’s farm.”

“Wide Open Spaces” by The Chicks (formerly the Dixie Chicks)

“Wide Open Spaces” is the title track of The Chicks’ fourth studio album. The song, written by Susan Gibson, is the perfect anthem for someone ready for a long trip, preferably to somewhere new.

“Wide Open Spaces” says in part, “She needs wide open spaces / Room to make her big mistakes / She needs new faces, she knows the high stakes.” The song was actually inspired by Gibson, who had returned home from college and found herself back under her parents’ roof, with them suddenly questioning her every move, like when she was a child.

“At this point in my songwriting career, I was only writing songs to make myself feel better,” Gibson tells The Tennessean. “It was all about processing things and how to say it in a way that’s not going to hurt. I couldn’t say ‘Mom, none of your business,’ but I could write, ‘She needs room to make her big mistakes.’”

“Take Me Home, Country Roads” by John Denver

John Denver released “Take Me Home, Country Roads” in 1971, on his Poems, Prayers, and Promises album. Written by Denver, along with Bill Danoff and Taffy Nivert, the song is about the joy of returning home, which in the song happens to be West Virginia.

“Country roads, take me home,” Denver sings. “To the place I belong / West Virginia, mountain mama / Take me home, country roads.” Ironically, none of the three writers had ever been to West Virginia before.

“I just thought the idea that I was hearing something so exotic to me from someplace as far away,” Danoff explains (via Songfacts). “West Virginia might as well have been in Europe, for all I knew.”

“Life Is A Highway” by Rascal Flatts

Before Rascal Flatts released “Life Is A Highway” in 2006, Tom Cochrane, who wrote the song, released it in 1991. Chris LeDoux also released it, in 1998. But it’s Rascal Flatts who made the song a hit single. The trio recorded it for the Pixar blockbuster film, Cars.

The song says, “Life is a highway / I wanna ride it all night long / If you’re goin’ my way / Well, I wanna drive it all night long.”

Nearly 20 years later, Rascal Flatts still include it in their live shows, also making it the title of their latest album, Life Is A Highway: Refueled Duets. It was Pixar head  John Lasseter who approached Rascal Flatts about doing a new version of the song.

“He told us about this movie Cars that he was doing,” LeVox remembers (via Songfacts). “We were like, ‘Well, that sounds weird. So, the cars are gonna talk?’ And he was, like, ‘Yeah.’ Toy Story worked, so you know what you’re doing, John.’

Photo by Gary Miller/FilmMagic