The cellular automata (CA) approach to traffic modeling is extended to allow for spatially homogeneous steady state solutions that cover a two dimensional region in the flow-density plane. Hence these models fulfill a basic postulate of three-phase traffic theory proposed by Kerner. This is achieved by a synchronization distance, within which a vehicle always tries to adjust its speed to the one of the leading vehicle. In the CA models presented, the modeling of the free and safe speeds, the slow-and-start rules as well as some contributions to noise are based on the ideas of the Nagel-Schreckenberg type modeling. It is shown that the proposed CA models can be very transparent and still reproduce the two main types of congested patterns (the general pattern and the synchronized flow pattern) as well as their dependence on the flows near an on-ramp, in qualitative agreement with the recently developed continuum version of three-phase traffic theory [B. S. Kerner and S. L. Klenov. 2002. J. Phys. A: Math. Gen. 35, L31]. These features are qualitatively different than in previously considered CA traffic models.