Based on the sliding-mode and adaptive control theories, the distributed consensus tracking problem under directed topology is investigated for multiple mechanical systems in the presence of general disturbances. We consider that only a subset of the follower mechanical systems can get the information from the dynamic leader mechanical system. First, with the upper bounds of the general disturbances and the leader’s acceleration, a distributed sliding-mode tracking scheme is proposed. Then, when considering the high conservation of sliding-mode control, an improved algorithm with adaptation laws for the upper bounds is developed. Both the proposed algorithms can make tracking errors for each follower mechanical system asymptotically stable. Numerical examples and comparisons are provided to show the effectiveness and the performance of the proposed control strategies.