Cars 2 was the first Cars film to use an international spy story.
The 2011 sequel combines the World Grand Prix with a secret-agent plot. Mater is mistaken for an American spy and becomes involved with Finn McMissile and Holley Shiftwell, who are investigating a threat connected to the race and its alternative fuel campaign.
This structure differs sharply from Cars, which centers on McQueen’s accidental stay in Radiator Springs and his personal growth. Cars 3 then returns to a more focused racing drama about McQueen, Jackson Storm, and Cruz Ramirez. Cars 2 therefore stands out within the trilogy for its espionage genre and global locations.
The spy characters also connect the film to classic espionage conventions, including covert identities, gadgets, chase scenes, and international travel. The answer is the film title, not the name of the race: the World Grand Prix is the competition around which the spy story unfolds.