Plot

Star race car Lightning McQueen and his pal Mater head overseas to compete in the World Grand Prix race. But the road to the championship becomes rocky as Mater gets caught up in an intriguing adventure of his own: international espionage.

The famous race car Lightning McQueen and his team are invited to compete in the World Grand Prix race. There, McQueen's best friend Mater finds himself involved in international espionage, and alongside two professional British spies attempts to uncover a secret plan led by a mysterious mastermind and his criminal gang, which threatens the lives of all competitors in the tournament.—MadMovieManiac

Race star Lightning McQueen is invited to the World Grand Prix, a race inviting all of the best race cars from around the world. But suddenly, things get turned upside down when Mater gets mistaken for an American spy. And a pair of bad guys called The Lemons are sabotaging the race with an evil camera. There are two questions on mind: Who will win the World Grand Prix? And will the spy cars beat the lemons?

Lightning McQueen, the world's best racecar champion, and his loyal tow-truck companion, Mater, head to cosmopolitan Tokyo for an exciting World Grand Prix after accepting a challenge and the events of Cars (2006). But there, innocent Mater will find himself entangled in an international conspiracy and dangerous espionage games, as both undercover CIA operatives and secret British Intelligence agents struggle to get to the bottom of the knotty mystery. Under those circumstances, what will become of the first-ever World Championship?—Nick Riganas

Lightning McQueen signs up to compete in a World Grand Prix, but it turns out that competing also means that he is in danger without knowing it. Mater teams up and works together with two international spies in an effort to save his best friend and protect the world.—RECB3

A secret message is received from a spy named Leland Turbo (Jason Isaacs), giving information about a secret location, and something even more sinister. The coordinates provided in Leland's message are followed by Finn McMissile, who charters a fishing boat to the coordinates. As they get close, a large armored carrier appears and demands the fishing boat turn around. As it does so, McMissile sneaks aboard the carrier.

British spy Finn McMissile (Michael Caine) infiltrates the world's largest untapped oil reserves, owned by a group of "lemon" cars (small vehicles that often have engine trouble and need constant upkeep) to rescue fellow spy Leland Turbo. The oil reserves are in the middle of the Pacific Ocean & are being taken by a group of giant ocean oil rigs. The cars are bring led by Professor Zundapp (Thomas Kretschmann), who has developed an electromagnetic pulse generator, disguised as a TV camera, and loaded it onto a shipping crate. After discovering Turbo's death, McMissile's presence gets exposed to the lemons, and he escapes by faking his death. Unseen to the lemons, McMissile has dove down, activated his submarine mode, and piloted away.

Four-time Piston Cup champion race car Lightning McQueen (Owen Wilson) returns home to Radiator Springs and reunites with his best friend Mater (Larry the Cable Guy) and girlfriend Sally Carrera (Bonnie Hunt). Doc Hudson (Paul Newman) is revealed to have died. Mater is distracted by the news tells of famed millionaire Miles Axelrod, who has turned himself into a fully-electric vehicle and developed a new alternative fuel source called Allinol.

Former oil tycoon Miles Axlerod (Eddie Izzard), now a green power advocate, announces a racing series called the "World Grand Prix" to promote the his new environmentally friendly fuel Allinol. When Italian formula race car Francesco Bernoulli (John Turturro) challenges McQueen. Lightning assembles his pit crew (made up of Sarge, Fillmore, Luigi, & Guido), and also (at Sally's urging) asks Mater to come along and help with the pit crew. Mater is eager to travel with his best friend, and soon the gang jets off to Japan for the first leg of the race.

Meanwhile, the lemons, led by Professor Zundapp and Master Mind, secretly plot to secure their oil profits by using a weapon disguised as a television camera to ignite the Allinol fuel.

McMissile and partner Holley Shiftwell (Emily Mortimer) attempt to rendezvous with American spy car Rod "Torque" Redline (Bruce Campbell) at a World Grand Prix promotional event in Tokyo to receive information about the mastermind (who has managed to keep his identity a secret). McMissile's photos taken at the oil derricks do not provide sufficient information, but both agents are in Tokyo to meet up with an American spy who will be doing a drop-off of more concrete photo evidence. During the party, Miles Axelrod makes an appearance, and claims the World Grand Prix will show the world that his alternative fuel works just as well as gasoline. As part of the promotion, all of the racers in the event will be using Allinol.

Meanwhile McQueen is increasingly embarrassed with Mater's small-town behavior in a classy place like the world Grand Prix. Mater makes a scene after eating wasabi (mistaking it for pistachio ice cream) and seemingly leaking on stage, embarrassing Lightning.

While cleaning up, Mater interrupts a fight between American spy Rod "Torque" Redline (set to deliver some intel to McMissile) and lemons Grem and Acer. Redline was cornered by Zundapp's henchmen in the men's room and when Mater enters the room, Red passes his information (a digital photo of the mastermind attached to a tracking beacon) to Mater (by attaching it to his undercarriage without his knowledge) before he is captured.

Shiftwell and McMissile mistake Mater (as he has the tracking beacon which the American spy was supposed to have) as their American contact. Mater answers Shiftwell's test question correctly though it is about older vehicles, something Mater is an expert on. Meanwhile, Redline is captured and killed by Zundapp, who reveals that Allinol ignites when hit with an EMP. Zundapp fills up Torque with Allinol & then targets him with electromagnetic pulses from the camera to kill Torque but not before realizing that Torque passed on the photo on to Mater. The group displays a number of pictures of possible people that Rod could have given the information to, and when Rod's gaze lingers on an image of Mater, the group make plans to eliminate Mater as Rod's engine explodes. Zundapp informs his superior, an unknown mastermind, that Redline passed on his information.

During the first race, McMissile and Shiftwell help Mater evade Zundapp's henchmen, who are coming after Mater to retrieve the tracking beacon package. However, at that time Mater was being the pit crew for McQueen & was giving him race directions. As Shiftwell interjects into the transmit frequency, she gives Mater instructions to avoid capture & Mater complies as he thinks Shiftwell is asking him out on a date. But in this process, Mater inadvertently gives McQueen negative advice which causes him to lose the race. Meanwhile, Zundapp uses the weapon on several race cars & blows them up. After McQueen falls out with Mater, McMissile, who still believes Mater is an American spy, drafts him into foiling Zundapp's plot. The blowup of 3 cars makes media question the safety of Allinol. Miles Axelrod is called into question and promises that his alternative fuel source is safe.

Mater decides to leave McQueen & go back to Radiator Springs, but he is chased at the airport by Zundapp's goons & is rescued by McMissile & Shiftwell who escape with Mater in a private plane. Inside the plane Shiftwell takes the tracking beacon from Mater & finds the photo of an engine with some rare parts. Shiftwell gets on case to trace the identity of the car using the photographic evidence at hand & by tracking the buyer of the rare parts.

They find the seller of the parts who informs them that the part is an oil filter & his customer has ordered several hundred in the last few months. Both McMissile and Shiftwell are clueless as to the items, but Mater's knowledge of spare parts allows him to recognize them as the kind of parts used in 'lemon' vehicles. Mater informs the group that old dodgy cars (also called lemons) need frequent oil filter changes. Amazed at this information, McMissile has Siddeley, the private plane, fly to Paris. McMissile finds from his oil rig photos that all the Zundapp's henchmen are lemon cars. In Paris, McMissile finds a seedy parts dealer named Tombar. The vehicle tells McMissile, Shiftwell, & Mater that the parts in the picture look like some he sold an unknown contact in Porto Corsa, Italy, the site of the 2nd Grand Prix race.

Meanwhile, on the day before the race, Luigi (Tony Shalhoub) and Guido's (Guido Quaroni) uncle, Topolino (Vanessa Redgrave), convinces a guilt-ridden Lightning to make amends with Mater.

In Porto Corsa, McMissile and Shiftwell recognize a couple as being part of large crime syndicates, and upon seeing one of the groups being towed by a tow-truck with a very similar appearance to Mater, it is decided to send Mater undercover. Mater insists that he is simply a tow-truck, but McMissile simply feels that Mater is still acting like a fool as part of his spy disguise.

Mater infiltrates the criminals' meeting by masquerading as a private tow truck for one of the high-ranking members and discovers Zundapp's plan. The mastermind is himself a lemon (who appears via video conferencing and only his engine parts at visible) & angry at the world for laughing at & discarding the lemons. For this reason, he is blowing up the shiny new cars using Allinol as a way to get back at world's cruelty.

In the process he is also trashing the credibility of Allinol. Once Allinol is finished, the lemons will have the last laugh on the world's energy woes, as their leader has found a large source of oil in the Atlantic Ocean, and intends to sell their stock at inflated prices. Zundapp's henchmen, meanwhile, use their weapon on several more cars during the race, eventually causing a multi-car crash on the Casino Bridge. McQueen wins the race by a whisker, but his win is overshadowed by the huge question mark over Allinol.

Due to controversy over Allinol's safety, Axlerod lifts its requirement for use in the final race in London. However, McQueen decides to continue using it thus instantly making him the biggest enemy of the Mastermind who vows to kill McQueen during the last race as his victory in England using Allinol will ruin the group's plans. This spooks Mater, and he accidentally blows his cover, causing him, McMissile, and Shiftwell to be captured and tied up inside Big Bentley, where he admits to them that he is not the spy they think he is. Mater realizes how foolish he has been acting.

After thinking he heard Mater in the crowd in Porto Corsa, Lightning contacted his friends back home, but when they reported they had no idea where Mater was, they came as quickly as possible to be with Lightning. Also on hand is Miles Axelrod, who thanks Lightning for not giving up on Allinol.

The criminals use the weapon on McQueen during the race, but nothing happens. They quickly leave to take care of him themselves, but let Mater know they have planted a bomb nearby that should take care of Lightning if all else fails.

Mater flees to warn his friends of a bomb planted in McQueen's pit stop, but McMissile and Shiftwell find that the bomb was actually planted on Mater, as they knew after escaping Mater would go straight to warn McQueen. They warn Mater about the bomb before Mater flees to protect his friends. However, he is pursued by McQueen in an attempt to reconcile, unaware of the real danger until they are out of range of Zundapp's remote detonator.

McMissile apprehends Zundapp. The other lemons arrive and outnumber McMissile, Shiftwell, Mater, and Lightning, but they are rescued by the other Radiator Springs residents and Sarge's (Paul Dooley) colleagues in the British Army.

Upon his capture, Zundapp reveals that only the person who installed the bomb can deactivate it and Mater realizes that Axlerod is the mastermind behind the plot.

Mater suddenly activates his rockets, and flies back to the main starting area. There, in the presence of The Queen and her son Prince Wheeliam, Mater confronts Miles Axelrod, claiming he's the one behind the entire scheme. Mater accuses Miles of just pretending to have turned himself all-electric, and that most likely, his engine requires the spare parts that he saw in the photos. Mater also claims that lemon-like engines tend to leak easily, and he knows that the leak during the Tokyo Pre-game party was made by Miles, who pinned it on Mater. Miles continues to deny this until the last seconds of the bomb's countdown, when he voice-deactivates the bomb, proving Mater's theory to be correct. Alexrod is forced to deactivate it to save himself.

When Mater forces Axlerod to deactivate the bomb, Axlerod, Zundapp and the lemons are arrested. Mater explains that Alexrod created the race to discredit Allinol & he created Allinol to discredit alternative fuels, so that he could profit from his oil fields. Allinol was basically gasoline that Alexrod engineered so that it would explode with electromagnetic radiation.

As a reward for his heroism, Mater is knighted by the Queen and returns home with his friends, where the cars from the Grand Prix take part in the unofficial Radiator Springs Grand Prix. Fillmore reveals that before the last race, Sarge replaced McQueen's Allinol with Fillmore's organic fuel, which prevented McQueen from being affected by the weapon. McMissile and Shiftwell invite Mater to join them in another spy mission, but he turns it down. While his weapons get confiscated, he keeps the rockets and speeds off with Lightning, just as Siddeley speeds into the distance.