Out of respect for Paul Newman, who died in 2008, Doc Hudson Hornet from Cars (2006) is not included in this movie. An early scene implies that Hudson has died. However, Fillmore the Volkswagen van, voiced by George Carlin, who also died in 2008, appears here, voiced by Lloyd Sherr. Red the fire truck, voiced by Joe Ranft, who died in 2005, also appears, but doesn't have any dialogue or vocalizations.

Mater, Finn, and Holley are tied down on Big Bentley's gears, ready to be crushed when the gears run into each other. It is established that the gears rotate for every minute that passes on the clock. When the clock reaches the time of 3:02 they are all two minutes away from being crushed. The scene cuts away and when it returns, the clock face clearly shows a time of 3:05, but the gears have not moved inside.

In the beginning of the credits, the story of Mater and Lightning's trip around the world is told through pastel-like, mildly animated postcard pictures.

In international versions of Cars 2, Jeff Gorvette is replaced in World Grand Prix welcome party in Tokyo by a completely different character, voiced by a regionally better known racer than Jeff Gordon. However, they only replace him in the scene where Lightning meets him at the party in Tokyo as well as when that scene appears in Mater's nightmare. They don't replace him in the races or when the racers are shocked at Mater drinking from the water fountain after eating a lot of wasabi. Most of these characters use the same body shape as Max Schnell. These include: Frosty voiced by Mark Winterbottom Australian release Fernando Alonso voiced by Fernando Alonso Spanish release Vitaly Petrov voiced by Vitaly Petrov Russian release Jan Nilsson voiced by Jan Nilsson Swedish release Long Ge Chinese (both Mandarin and Cantonese versions, however, not Taiwan) release Memo Rojas, Jr. voiced by Memo Rojas, Jr. Mexican release Sebastian Schnell voiced by Sebastian Vettel German release (Also appear in other releases, but voiced by other voice actor, called Max Schnell, and don't appear at this scene) Carla Veloso voiced by Claudia Leitte Brazilian release (Also appear in other releases, but voiced by other voice actor and don't appear at this scene) Raoul ÇaRoule some French releases (Also appear in other releases, but don't appear at this scene) In Ukrainian release both Jeff Gorvett and Lewis Hamilton renamed after their voice actors: Sheva (Jeff Gorvett) voiced by Andriy Shevchenko Mochanych (Lewis Hamilton) voiced by Oleksiy Mochanov However, they still looks like Jeff and Lewis.

Featured in Ebert Presents: At the Movies: Episode #1.22 (2011)