Cars 2 is the Pixar Cars movie built around the World Grand Prix.
The 2011 sequel sends Lightning McQueen to an international racing series organized by Miles Axlerod. The competition takes place in locations including Tokyo, Porto Corsa, and London. Mater accompanies Lightning and becomes entangled in a spy adventure involving Finn McMissile and Holley Shiftwell.
The World Grand Prix is promoted as a global event designed to demonstrate the value of alternative fuel. Its races provide the action framework, while the espionage plot gives Cars 2 a different tone from the small-town story of the original film.
Cars focuses on Lightning’s personal transformation in Radiator Springs, and Cars 3 returns to his struggle against a newer generation of racers. Planes belongs to a related Disneytoon spin-off rather than Pixar’s Cars feature-film trilogy. The World Grand Prix therefore specifically identifies Cars 2 among the three Pixar Cars films.