In Pixar’s Cars, Lightning McQueen is trying to win the Piston Cup.
The Piston Cup is the major American stock-car racing championship featured in the first film. Lightning finishes a three-way tie with Chick Hicks and the veteran racer known as The King, leading to a final race at the Los Angeles International Speedway. His trip to that race is interrupted when he becomes separated from his transport truck and ends up in Radiator Springs.
The competition is modeled on the presentation and visual language of professional stock-car racing. Cars uses fictional teams, sponsors, tracks, and championship branding rather than reproducing one real racing series exactly. The Piston Cup remains a recurring symbol of Lightning’s ambitions in the franchise.
The Dinoco name is connected to the championship because Dinoco sponsors The King and later becomes important to Lightning. However, Dinoco is a sponsor and brand within the story, not the name of the cup itself. The World Grand Prix belongs primarily to Cars 2.