Cars 2 was Pixar's first sequel outside the Toy Story series.
Released in 2011, Cars 2 followed Toy Story 3 and expanded the franchise from small-town racing to an international spy adventure. Lightning McQueen enters the World Grand Prix, while Mater becomes involved in a mistaken-identity espionage plot.
Before Cars 2, Pixar had made sequels only in the Toy Story franchise: Toy Story 2 and Toy Story 3. That made Cars 2 a major change in the studio's sequel strategy and established a broader pattern of returning to non-Toy Story worlds.
The film was directed by John Lasseter and Brad Lewis. Its locations include Tokyo, Porto Corsa, and London. The sequel is sometimes confused with Finding Dory or The Incredibles 2, but both were released later and therefore were not Pixar's first non-Toy Story sequel.