Cars 2 was the first Pixar Cars film to feature international espionage.
Released in 2011, Cars 2 shifts much of its focus from the small-town racing story of the original film to a global spy adventure. Mater is mistaken for an American agent and becomes entangled with Finn McMissile and Holley Shiftwell while Lightning competes in the World Grand Prix.
The espionage plot involves a conspiracy targeting racers and the alternative fuel promoted by Miles Axlerod. The story moves through Tokyo, Porto Corsa, and London, giving the film a much broader international setting than Cars. Its action and spy-film influences also make it structurally different from the character-driven first movie.
Cars 3 returned to a more personal racing story centered on Lightning, Cruz Ramirez, and Jackson Storm. Cars on the Road is a later television series, not a feature film. Thus Cars 2 is the series entry that first introduced the franchise’s international secret-agent storyline.