What racing competition is held across several countries in Pixar’s Cars 2?

The World Grand Prix is the international racing competition held across several countries in Pixar’s Cars 2.

Organized by former oil baron Miles Axlerod, the World Grand Prix is designed to promote Allinol, a supposedly clean alternative fuel. The event includes races in Tokyo, Porto Corsa, and London, giving Cars 2 a globe-spanning setting rather than the mostly American road-trip environment of the original film.

Lightning McQueen enters the competition after being challenged by Italian Formula One-style racer Francesco Bernoulli. Mater travels with McQueen and becomes involved in an international espionage plot involving Finn McMissile and Holley Shiftwell.

The World Grand Prix is fictional, despite borrowing visual ideas from real motorsport events. It should not be confused with the Piston Cup, the domestic racing championship central to the first Cars film and important again in Cars 3. The competition’s races also provide the film’s main action framework while the spy story unfolds alongside them.