Characters of the Cars franchise introduced in its second film, Cars 2.
All spoilers in the Lemon Kingpin's entry are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.
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C.H.R.O.M.E. Agents
Finn McMissile
Voiced by:
Michael Caine (Movie)
Martin Jarvis (Other media)
Basis: 1963 Aston Martin DB5
A British spy whom Mater comes in contact.
- Accent Upon The Wrong Syllable: Because of his accent, he pronounces his last name as "Mac-miss-isle".
- Amphibious Automobile: Finn can transform into both a hydrofoil and a submarine.
- Big "NO!": When he fails to stop the Lemons from injuring the racers.
- Blue Is Heroic: He is metallic blue.
- Color-Coded Characters: Light, silverish blue with hints of chrome.
- Comically Missing the Point: He’s convinced that Mater is only acting stupid because he really is that good at playing the acting part of being a spy rather than him being genuinely stupid. When he tells this to Mater himself, it goes into Innocently Insensitive territory.
- Curtains Match the Window: Matching blue paint job and eye color.
- Faking the Dead: He releases a set of decoy tires after escaping the Oil Rig to make his enemies think he’s been torpedoed.
- I Am Very British: A British spy car.
- I Will Only Slow You Down: When he and Holley are in a death trap, while Mater escapes his own predicament, he tells the latter to go and stop the Lemons, claiming he and Holley will be fine. Turns out he did not expect this to be true, but Holley manages to rescue them both.
- Icy Blue Eyes: Representing his tough agent personality, something he inherits from his voice actor.
- Innocently Insensitive: He believes Mater is Obfuscating Stupidity and compliments the "act" by pointing out how much everyone sees Mater as a buffoon to laugh at, unaware of how deeply this affects him.
- Master of Disguise: He has a voice-activated holographic disguise.
- Shout-Out: He's a 1963 Aston Martin DB5, the same car famously associated with Agent 007 himself.
- Tritagonist: He's the third main focal of the movie after Mater, with Lightning as the Deuteragonist.
- Weaponized Car: Finn hides missiles, rockets, Gatling guns and even cables in his body.
Holley Shiftwell
Voiced by: Emily Mortimer
Basis: Jaguar XJR-15
A British spy and colleague to Finn. Mater falls in love with her.
- Color-Coded Characters: Dark, reddish purple.
- Flying Car: They’re standard issue for agents nowadays.
- Graceful Ladies Like Purple: She is purple, and quite graceful, to be exact.
- Informed Attractiveness: Like with Sally and Lightning in the first film, Mater rambles endlessly about how he finds her attractive, even though she's only a car with eyes.
- Official Couple: With Mater.
- Punny Name: Shares her name with an auto brand, not just a play on the name "Holly"
- Shock and Awe: One of her weapons is an electric taser.
- Ugly Guy, Hot Wife: If Mater's comment about owning wedding flaps in Cars 3 is any indication, he and Holley are either married or about to marry; he's a rusty, beaten tow-truck while she's a sleek spy car.
- Weaponized Car: The espionage characters feature missiles, rockets, machine guns, and targeting systems hidden all along their bodies, most notably Finn McMissile, Holly Shiftwell, Rod Redline, and Mater.
Siddeley
Voiced by: Jason Isaacs
Gulfstream G5
- Cool Plane: Capable of high-speed flight from Japan to France in a couple of hours.
- Shout-Out: Sid sports the recurring Pixar In-Joke "A113" as his registration number on his tailfin. He's named after an aircraft manufacturer (but not the one that builds the Gulfstream!). The name comes from the Hawker Siddeley Harrier, which references Siddeley's ability to rotate his engines to hover in the air.
- Token Flyer: He is a sleek spy plane who is the only aerial secret agent seen.
Leland Turbo
Voiced by: Jason Isaacs
MG MGA
A British spy that informs about Zündapp's plans.
- All There in the Manual: His character bio stated he and Finn have been partners for a long time, something that is not made clear in the movie.
- Family-Unfriendly Death: He was put through a freaking trash compactor and his compacted body is seen as a cube!
- Forgotten Fallen Friend: After Finn sees Leland’s compacted corpse and escapes from the oil rig, poor Leland is never acknowledged again.
- Small Role, Big Impact: His distress call at the start of the film kicks off much of the plot.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: He dies very early on in the movie before we can learn much about him.
Rod "Torque" Redline
Voiced by: Bruce Campbell
Dodge Challenger R/T
- All There in the Script: He isn't referred to by name once.
- Big "NO!": Yells this when the Lemons realize that Mater is their true target.
- Blue Is Heroic: His dark blue paintwork shows that he's quite tough.
- Character Death: He was killed from the spontaneous explosion of Allinol.
- Cold-Blooded Torture: Torque is brutally tortured to death by Zündapp as part of a demonstration of the effects of an electromagnetic pulse on Allinol.
- Defiant to the End: Even while being tortured he speaks in a calm tone, and even insults the lemons at one point.Oh, you know, I'm just wearing a disguise. But you guys are stuck looking like that!
- Eyes Never Lie: When the lemons present a series of images to Rod to figure out which car he passed his data to, his eyes briefly dart towards the screen when Mater is shown. Professor Z catches this and immediately figures out Mater has the device attached to him.
- Family-Unfriendly Death: His engine is made to overheat and explode, though it's only shown as a vague reflection. If one views the reflection closely, Torque can be seen desperate to stay alive until he gets hit by the electromagnetic pulse, and when he ignites on fire, his eyes blacken out as an indicator that he's dead.
- I'm Dying, Please Take My MacGuffin: He gives Mater the data before being tortured to death.
- Master of Disguise: Unlike Finn's holographic disguise, his disguise is a retractable metal shell.
- Meaningful Name: Redline refers to drive a car engine at or above its rated maximum rpm. To redline something or someone also means to shove them aside and ignore them, and Torque is shuffled out of the plot pretty quickly. It has absolutely nothing to do with his color.
- My God, What Have I Done?: When he realizes that he inadvertently made Mater, a civilian, the next target of the Lemons.
- Paper Tiger: Despite being a muscle car, he gets easily beaten up by Grem and Acer, two lemons who are car models that are notorious for being in poor condition.
- Sacrificial Lamb: He dies buying time for important information to be passed onto Finn via Mater.
- Small Role, Big Impact: Doesn't do much on-screen and is killed shortly after his introduction, but he obtained important information about the lemon kingpin and caused Mater to get mistaken for a spy.
- Weaponised Car: Armed with a pistol in one of his front wheels.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: Only gets a couple minutes of screentime before being killed by the lemons.
Lemons
The Lemon Kingpin (SPOILERS)
Sir Miles Axlerod
Voiced by: Suzy Eddie Izzard
Range Rover L322
The creator of the World Grand Prix and the Allinol oil.
- Big Bad: The true main antagonist of Cars 2. Axlerod is the Lemon Kingpin who leads the lemon cars in their plot to sabotage Allinol and discredit alternative fuel.
- Bitch in Sheep's Clothing: A demon in sheep's clothing. He comes off as a warmhearted British old guy at first, but he is secretly working for the Lemons as their "big boss".
- The Chessmaster: He manages to run the World Grand Prix and command the Lemons completely covertly at the same time, making him responsible for the events of both the racing scenes and the spy scenes in the film.
- Consummate Liar: Pretty much everything he says and does is one big web of lies, but the part about Allinol being a functional alternative fuel is the one that stands out the most as he specifically designed it to be a highly flammable and explosive formula that would cause lethal damage to those that would use it, which means it's the exact opposite of what he says it is.
- Corrupt Corporate Executive: He is the CEO of Axlerod Industries and the billionaire creator of the World Grand Prix and Allinol, and secretly an oil magnate who's willing to stoop to Sabotage to Discredit alternative fuels so as to increase reliance on oil and line up his pockets.
- Did Not See That Coming: More than surprised that Mater, of all cars, was the one to foil his plans.
- Dirty Coward: Upon being cornered by Mater, he's forced to deactivate the bomb and expose himself as the leader of the Lemons to avoid getting himself killed.
- Evil All Along: His villain position is not revealed until near the end of the movie. Basically, he acted in secret all the time. It's also a case of Hidden Villain, since we know about the existence of The Lemon Kingpin but we don't know his identity until The Reveal.
- Evil Brit: He's the Lemon Kingpin and is from Britain.
- Evil Plan: Use his Allinol fuel to make alternative fuel in general look bad so everyone can go back to using oil to power their engines.
- Foil: Also counts as Evil Counterpart.
- To Tow Mater.
- Both look to be worn-out vehicles with their racer counterparts way out of their league by comparison, and both seemingly have a passion for helping cars (Mater always willing to tow his cars to safety, Axlerod wanting to change the world with his new alternative fuel). However, their polar opposite traits could not have been more distinct. While Mater is very rusty on the outside, his inside is very much intact, being capable of physical combat as a spy vehicle, driving backwards at a very high speed, and admittedly never leaks oil, even when Axlerod blames him for it. Speaking of Axlerod, he looks to be a very sophisticated and high functioning electric-car (or so he and everyone else thinks) on the outside, but when all is said and done, he's nothing more than a gas-guzzling lemon with a broken clutch assembly, faulty oil system, and (as Mater himself sees his disguise at first glance) the worst engine to all vehicles. Personality-wise, Mater is a low-class goofball making an embarrassment to McQueen in Tokyo, but is really a good-natured vehicle at heart who ultimately wins the respect of his peers by exposing Axlerod with his crimes. Speaking of Axlerod, he is presented as the highly dignified, gentlemanly oil tycoon running the World Grand Prix, but is really a vile monster who would kill or blow up cars in secret just so he could make a profit and gain power. It's heavily implied he's reduced to nothing more than infamy after his crimes are exposed to the public.
- It's also worth noting that both cars actually struggle with personal insecurity regarding the film's overall theme: becoming yourself. Mater, despite being The Ditz and a goofball eventually becoming self-aware that he was getting on McQueen's nerves, ends up having a Heroic BSoD when Finn McMissile unintentionally calls him out for it. Though after a pep talk from Lightning having a change of heart, he eventually accepts who he is as himself in Radiator Springs prior to stopping Axlerod. Speaking of Axlerod, he knows that he is a Lemon with serious engine issues, but would go all the way to maintain a gentlemanly philanthropic persona while also committing heinous actions towards other cars just so he could gain some respect among his peers. He'll even go as far as to throw Mater under the bus when he was leaking oil, just so that he could look good in the public as an "electric car."
- Also to Francesco Bernoulli, as both are European Jerkasses who directly oppose one of the flick's main characters (Francesco being Lightning McQueen's main rival on the track, Axlerod being Mater's ultimate adversary in the latter's spy mission). However, their vehicle design and personalities could not have been more distinct. Francesco is pretty much a speedy racer on par with Lightning who is an open Jerkass, but ultimately has a good heart, as seen with his close relationship with his mother and even displaying horror when the other racers are blown out of commission from Allinol. Axlerod is nothing more than a Lemon (albeit pretending to be an electric car) who hides his sociopathic monster of a personality with a gentlemanly philanthropic appearance.
- To Tow Mater.
- Faux Affably Evil: Even though he has the appearance of a smooth-talking British gentleman throughout most of the film, his true colors are revealed in the end when the racers discover that he never switched to electric and that he planted a bomb on Mater as part of his cover-up while working with the Lemons and Zündapp to discredit alternative fuels.
- Green and Mean: Sir Axlerod has a green paint job and is the hidden main antagonist.
- Greenwashed Villainy: Axlerod claims to be electric-run and pushes the alternate fuel Allinol as an environmentally friendly product. In reality, Axlerod the Kingpin behind the Lemons' operations, and wants all alternative fuels to be made to look bad so that oil, which is the industry he really supports, can profit from it.
- Laser-Guided Karma: He ends up arrested by the British police force the moment Mater exposes him for his crimes. It's extra karmic considering he's also British.
- Last-Name Basis: He is generally always referred to as "Sir Axlerod".
- Light Is Not Good: Axlerod has the appearance of an unassuming affable rich guy who sees everyone below him as an equal, both physically and socially, but he is the real Big Bad behind the conspiracy against Allinol in a plot to smear the reputation of alternative fuels, and his more blatantly evil-looking mooks completely contrast his falsely benign exterior.
- The Man Behind the Man: Axlerod is the mysterious leader of the Lemons and had engineered the sabotage of his own Grand Prix with Allinol in order to discredit alternative fuel in general.
- Master Actor: He manages to pull off the Nice Guy act so well that it's actually impossible to tell he's the true mastermind behind what Mater and Finn are investigating at all at first. However, this just makes him more of a psychopath considering he can pull off such a façade with ease.
- The Mob Boss Is Scarier: He's the Lemon Kingpin behind pretty much all of the events of Cars 2, and his cohorts follow his orders exclusively, which means that their brutality is an extension of his brutality.
- Near-Villain Victory: He would've succeeded in killing Mater and anyone surrounding him in the final race if Finn hadn't warned him of the bomb Axlerod planted (and if Holley didn't release the both of them from the clock tower trap for him to discover the evidence of that), Guido didn't try and fail to unscrew the bolts tying the bomb to his hood (due to using Whitworth bolts), and Mater didn't make it to Axlerod to confront him in time.
- Nice Guy: He's very kind and supportive to almost everyone he meets. It's all an act.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: His globe-trekking exploits bring Richard Branson to mind.
- Non-Action Big Bad: Largely due to doing his plans in secret, only being exposed when Mater brings the bomb he implanted right to him.
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: He pretends to be looking out for the lemon cars as their kingpin, and claims that increasing reliance on oil will make them respected. In truth, he is the inventor of Allinol, the very fuel he's using to sabotage the reputation of alternative fuels, and mainly concerned with profiting off oil.
- Put on a Prison Bus: The London police take Axlerod into custody at the end of the film.
- Rich Bastard: He's the extremely wealthy CEO of his own company who also happens to be the Big Bad behind the conspiracy to sabotage his own Allinol oil and discredit alternative fuels so he can make even more money.
- Smug Snake: During his Porto Corsa speech, the one and only time he shows his true self to the viewer, his attitude is contemptibly smug and self-righteous. Fitting, considering it happens during a montage where he's sabotaging racers of his Grand Prix through his minions.Axlerod (disguised): They laughed at us, but now it's our turn to laugh back.
- The Sociopath: His charm is just a mere facade to hide the monster he really is.
- Tautological Templar: Axlerod is a delusional terrorist who honestly believes that he's supporting the inferior cars who were mocked by everyone, while almost completely unaware that he's actually pursuing his desire for further wealth and carelessly damaging innocent cars in the process.
- Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: One of the most evil Pixar villains, right up there with Hopper, Randall Boggs, Syndrome, Lotso and Ernesto de la Cruz, with his crimes being heavily centered on torture, mass murder, terrorism, and conspiracy.
- Villainous Breakdown: When Mater accuses him of being the mastermind and refuses to back off with the bomb in him ticking down. He tries his best to keep his cool but slowly cracks mentally and emotionally under Mater's pressing and ultimately is forced to deactivate it through voice command, exposing him in the process.
- Walking Spoiler: For most of the movie, he appears to be the Big Good. It is not until near the end of the film that Mater reveals him to be the Big Bad.
- Wicked Pretentious: "Pretentious" barely describes the scale of how utterly fake he is, pretending to be an Honest Corporate Executive who cares about alternative fuels and the environment when he's really a madman working with the lemons who is willing to kill other cars just to make a quick buck through the oil reserves he and his goons bought up.
Professor Zündapp
Voiced by: Thomas Kretschmann
1959 Zündapp Janus
A weapons designer and criminal mastermind affiliated with the Lemons as their second-in command.
- Arms Dealer: He is the one who provides the lemons with the EM pulse emitter used to sabotage Allinol during the events of the film as part of Axlerod's plot to discredit alternative fuels in general.
- Dirty Coward: As soon as he is caught by Shiftwell after his plan to detonate Lightning failed, he screams at his loudest pitch and crashes through the window behind him, taking off immediately after.
- The Dragon: To the Lemon Kingpin, Sir Miles Axlerod. He physically leads the lemon cars, while Axlerod stays in the shadows.
- Faux Affably Evil: He is a ruthless boss who behaves in a very polite and calm manner, even as he tortures and kills cars for his job.
- The Heavy: Zündapp is the main physical threat, but everything he does is under the orders of his boss, Miles Axlerod.
- Hero Killer: Kills two spy cars in the film, one offscreen. One onscreen.
- Herr Doktor: Professor Zündapp caters to this, as if the giant monocle, condescending tone of voice and his experience in dangerous weaponry didn't give it away before.
- High-Class Glass: Bizarrely enough for a car.
- Knight of Cerebus: No doubt, he is one of the darker villains of the Cars franchise (as well as one of the darker villains of Pixar movies in general). Directly leading to the death of two spies is just the beginning.
- Not Me This Time: For all of the wrong things he does in the film, activating the bomb on Mater apparently wasn't one of them, though he is the one who set it to a timer when it didn't work the first time. It was actually his boss and the true leader of the lemons, Axlerod, something of which Mater exploits in the climax.Zündapp: Ah, I'm not the one who activated it. Would anyone else like to try?
- Not-So-Well-Intentioned Extremist: Though he positions himself as wanting to help the marginalized lemon cars, he is really a power-hungry sociopath.
- One-Letter Name: Other characters usually refer to him as Professor Z.
- Soft-Spoken Sadist: He never raises his voice while torturing someone to death.
- The Sociopath: He willingly performs the tortures and murders ordered by his boss.
- Vile Villain, Saccharine Show: The Cars series is relatively light-hearted with most of the villains generally being Jerkass Villainy-Free Villain competitors who usually just resort to rough-housing at worst. Zündapp, however, goes for the outright murder of those who get in his way.
- Villainous Breakdown: Zündapp loses his marbles when his weaponised camera fails to kill Lightning and Mater comes to rescue Lightning, and repeatedly pushes the button in anger. After he is captured, he rants about why didn't his death ray kill Lightning.
Grem and Acer
Voiced by: Joe Mantegna (Grem) & Peter Jacobson (Acer)
AMC Gremlin and AMC Pacer
A duo of Lemon cars and Professor Zündapp's lieutenents.
- Bar Brawl: This is how the two actually both meet their end: after Holley knocks them into a local bar, the patrons pulverize them.
- Co-Dragons: Two of the most recurring lemons who are almost always aiding Zündapp.
- Evil Laugh: They chuckle several times to each other when they tell Mater Lightning McQueen will blow up at his pit stop and there is nothing Mater can do about it.
- Green and Mean: Acer has a light green paint job and is one of the more notable lemon thugs.
- Iron Butt Monkey: Acer gets hit by an opening door, sprayed in the face by a fire extinguisher, caught in an explosion that throws him onto a giant chopstick sign, falls into a lavatory services truck, and is sent flying into a bar alongside Grem where they are beaten up.
- Jerkass: Both Grem and Acer are openly jerks to everyone, and don't hide behind any veneer of politeness.
- Karmic Butt-Monkey:
- Acer seems to suffer this the most. First being smacked by a bathroom stall after Mater leaves it, being sprayed with a fire extinguisher, being slung into the logo for a sushi restaurant, driving through a plane and landing in a truck providing lavatory water for the plane.
- Grem suffers this as well from being flipped during a chase at the airport.
- Needless to say in their defeat where Holley causing them to be slung into a bar, destroy all the tables and spill drinks on the patrons, causing the patrons to beat them up. Do Acer and Grem deserve it. Yes.
- I Shall Taunt You: Apparently, they intended to taunt Mater so he could be motivated to escape when they leave and warn McQueen of the bomb in his pit, unbeknownst to him that the bomb was actually placed in his air filter.
- A Lizard Named "Liz": Grem and Acer’s names indicate their models: Gremlin and (P)Acer.
The Lemon Family Heads
Voiced by: Stanley Townshend (Victor Hugo & Vladimir Trunkov), Brad Lewis (Tubbs Pacer) & John Mainieri (J. Curby Gremlin)
The leaders of the four Lemon crime families being Victor Hugo, Vladimir Trunkov, J. Curby Gremlin, and Tubbs Pacer.- The Alleged Car: All are modeled after some of the most notorious Alleged Cars of all time; besides Gremlin, Pacer and Yugo the Trunkovs are based on ZAZ Zaporozhets, the smallest and cheapest Soviet car.
- Creator Cameo: Tubbs is voiced by Brad Lewis, one of the film's co-directors.
- The Don: The four heads of the lemon families: J. Curby Gremlin, Vladimir Trunkov , Victor Hugo and Tubbs Pacer
- Evil Cripple: Victor Hugo breaks down a lot and is never seen moving on his own. He usually has his personal tow truck Ivan tow him from place to place.
- Law of Chromatic Superiority: Victor Hugo is the only golden model seen in the movie, signifying his importance.
- The Mafia: The Hugo family especially, but all four count.
- Nothing Personal: Vladimir Trunkov says this verbatim when McQueen finds out the lemons what him dead just to make Allinol look bad.
- Shout-Out: The head of the Hugo family is named Victor.
Alexander Hugo
Voiced by: Velibor Topic
Yugo Koral/GV/45
- Bland-Name Product: Besides the similar name, the Hugos have quad headlights but are based on a model that only ever had single headlights.
- I Have Many Names: He’s been known to go by the aliases of "Chop Shop Alex", "Alexander the "Not So" Great" and "Alexander Hu "Don’t" Go".
- Inexplicably Identical Individuals: He looks identical to all the other Hugo bodyguards accompanying Victor.
Ivan
Voiced by: Stanley Townshend
1955-57 Chevrolet truck
- Costume Copycat: Mater disguises himself as Ivan to infiltrate the Lemons' meeting in Porto Corsa.
- Evil Counterpart: Can be seen as this to Mater.
- Lzherusskie: Ivan is meant to be Russian, but plot necessity forced him to have the same International-based cab design as Mater.
Tony Trihull
Voiced by: Lloyd Sherr
USS Independence Littoral Combat Ship
- Animal Motifs: He's apparently part shark as well. His pointy bow and gray color scheme is somewhat reminiscent of a shark. If one looks closely in some scenes, he has pretty pointy teeth.
- Hoist by His Own Petard: He had used a magnet to try and pull Zündapp to him when Finn had managed to latch him with his wires. Finn uses that to his advantage by deploying the mines in his wheels which are pulled into the magnet. By the time Tony realizes what happened, they detonate.
- Karmic Death: Aiding in Zündapp's and Axlerod's conspiracy to discredit alternative fuels directly leads to his death.
- Oh, Crap!: Tony looks on in shock seconds before he gets blown up by Finn's mines.
- We Hardly Knew Ye: He doesn't appear for more than one scene before he's promptly blown up.
World Grand Prix racers
Francesco Bernoulli
Voiced by: John Turturro
An Italian racing car and Lightning's rival.
- Achilles' Heel: While his ultra-light design makes him a powerhouse on flat terrain, Francesco can't deal with dirt roads because of how light he is and helplessly spins out when he's forced to drive on dirt during the Tokyo race.
- Berserk Button: Francesco hates being called "fragile". If you've ever seen an F1 racer come apart in a high-speed crash, you'll understand why it's a touchy subject.Francesco: FRAGILE?! He calls-a Francesco fragile! Not-a so fast, McQueen!
- Borrowed Catchphrase: Just before the Tokyo race, Francesco teases Lightning's "Speed, I am speed" ritual as "Francesco is triple speed".
- Contrasting Sequel Antagonist: Like Chick Hicks from the first movie, he acts as Lightning's main rival for Cars 2. However, while Chick Hicks was a dirty cheater who was very unpopular among racing fans and remained antagonistic towards Lightning to the very end, Francesco races entirely fairly and through his own skill, has a wide fanbase (particularly in Italy, his home country), and eventually befriends Lightning by the end.
- Color-Coded Characters: Red with hints of white and dark green, the colors of the flag of Italy.
- Cultural Translation: In the Italian dub, Francesco speaks in the Neapolitan dialect. His Italian voice actor, Alessandro Siani, is a comedian, actor and Naples native.
- Deadpan Snarker: He does have moments of this, especially towards his main rival.McQueen: Speed, I am speed.
Francesco: (laughs) Really? You are speed? Then Francesco is Triple speed. Francesco is... triple speed. (chuckles) Francesco likes this, McQueen! It's-a really... Getting him into the ZONE!!! - Everyone Has Standards: Even Francesco is horrified upon seeing the huge wreck during the Italy Race. He also doesn't like cheating.
- Even Bad Men Love Their Mamas: Francesco honestly admits that when he's away from home, he misses his mama. He even dedicates his race at Italy to her!
- Foreign People Are Sexy: He's Italian, a Mr. Fanservice in-universe, and his actor John Turturro is of Italian ancestry.
- Fragile Speedster:
- Just don't say it to his face. He doesn't take it well when Lightning calls him fragile because he is a Formula 1 car, which are known Real Life for the particularly... violent ways they come apart in high-speed collisions.
- During the World Grand Prix, his lightweight frame makes him the fastest of all the racers... as long as he's on flat terrain. When he has to drive on a dirt road, he helplessly spins out and loses his lead until he gets off it, at which point he immediately races to the front again.
- In the tie-in game, he has the highest speed out of all the middleweight racers, but also the lowest weight one can get without being considered a lightweight.
- Freak Out: He has three that are Played for Laughs during the climax. The first is when a rocket propelled Mater and McQueen speed past him during the London Race, and a second time when Shiftwell flies over him. And finally in the epilogue when Mater flies past him with his rockets again.Francesco: WHAT IS HAPPENING?!
- Friendly Rival: Sort of. Despite constantly taunting Lightning, Francesco actually never cheats or fights dirty. Unlike Chick and Storm, who despised McQueen for the entirety of their respective films, Francesco becomes friends with McQueen at the end of his own respective film.
- Jerk with a Heart of Gold: He's incredibly arrogant and shows no qualms with insulting racers he considers below him. That said, he doesn't seem to be a cheat, and undoubtedly cares for the safety of his competitors even if he belittles them. He mellows a bit near the end of the film, particularly when he becomes Vitriolic Best Buds with McQueen.
- Mirror Character: To a pre-Character Development McQueen. Both are Smug Super racecars who have the speed and skills to back up their boasts and play fair, but are also arrogant jerks. The difference is, McQueen ultimately becomes a nicer guy by the end of the first film.
- Mr. Fanservice: In-Universe. All the girls are crazy over his open-wheeled tyres.
- Named After Somebody Famous: Francesco Bernoulli is based on a modern Formula 1 Grand Prix car and is named after the Bernoulli principle, which is the basis of the functioning of the aerodynamic wings found on Formula 1 cars such as Francesco.
- Pet the Dog:
- Subverted at the beginning of the Italy Race, he empathizes with McQueen, only to make fun of him again.
- Played straight at the end of said race, when he and McQueen see the crash on the screen, Francesco is horrified to see his fellow racers hurt.
- Precision F-Strike: He launches into an Italian-induced rant after Lightning mocks him over the phone. It's so suggestive that Mel Dorado had to mute it out.
- Plot-Irrelevant Villain: He has nothing to do with the darker plots in the movie. He exists mostly to give Lightning a rival (and by extension give the audience someone to root against) in the World Grand Prix races.
- The Rival: To McQueen. He belittles McQueen from the start, then briefly empathizes with Lightning before the race in Italy... before he starts taunting him again.
- Smug Super: And how! To his credit, Francesco is fast, but he's ultimately a prick about it, not unlike McQueen pre-character development. Francesco gets slightly better at the end of the film, though.
- Third-Person Person: "Francesco is familiar with this reaction to Francesco".
- Took a Level in Kindness: At the end, he seems to be friendlier with McQueen from now on.
- Villainy-Free Villain: He's not unscrupulous like Chick, nor a Bitch in Sheep's Clothing like the Lemon Kingpin, or a terrorist leader and Torture Technician like Professor Z, but he's obnoxious enough to give McQueen a reason to want to beat him.
- Vitriolic Best Buds: With McQueen. For most of the film, they don't get along at all. But at the end, they become friends.
Jeff Gorvette
Voiced by: Jeff Gordon
Chevrolet Corvette C6.R
- The Cameo: Makes a brief appearance in Cars 3 right before the start of the Florida 500 to wish Lightning luck. He's notable for being the only character from Cars 2 to reappear in the third movie.
- Cultural Translation: For international versions, he is replaced in two scenes by a totally different character, voiced by a racer who is better known in that country, although all other scenes involving Jeff are unaltered.
- Punny Name: He's a Corvette voiced by Jeff Gordon, so Jeff Gorvette makes perfect sense.
- Retired Badass: In Cars 3, he's retired from the racing business, a clear reference to Gordon's real-life retirement from NASCAR racing.
- Shout-Out: His racing number is Jeff Gordon's NASCAR number of 24.
- Those Two Guys: With Lewis Hamilton.
Lewis Hamilton
Voiced by: Lewis Hamilton
McLaren MP4-12C GT3
- Childish Tooth Gap: Has a gap in the middle of his upper row of teeth.
- Ink-Suit Actor: The real Lewis Hamilton was with McLaren's Formula 1 team at the time of filming.
- Those Two Guys: With Jeff Gorvette.
Raoul ÇaRoule
Voiced by: Jerome Dalton
Citroen C4 WRC
- Ascended Extra: One of five WGP racers to have a major role in the Fast as Lightning game. He also hosts the Rally Race in the Transcontinental Race of Champions, as seen in the Rally to the Finish! book.
- Blue Is Heroic: Has a light blue paint job.
- Character Catchphrase: "ÇaRoule ÇaRules!"
- I Am Not Left-Handed: Shares Lighting McQueen's offroad racing skill.
Nigel Gearsley
Voiced by: Greg Ellis
Aston Martin
- I Am Very British: Sports a sophisticated RP accent.
- Named After Someone Famous: After Sir Nigel Gresley, the chief mechanical engineer of the LNER.
Max Schnell
Voiced by: James Rankin
Mercedes C-Class DTM racer
- Ascended Extra: One of five WGP racers to have a major role in the Fast as Lightning game. He was added following the Neon Racers update. He also hosts the Carbon Race in the Transcontinental Race of Champions.
- Dub Name Change: The German dub renames him "Sebastian Schnell" [
after his German actor, multiple Formula One champion Sebastian Vettel. - Germanic Efficiency: In the "Fast as Lightning" video game, Max boasts to possess precision German engineering.
- Punny Name: His name is a wordplay on "mach schnell", to be quick or hurry up.
Miguel Camino
Voiced by: Jon Molerio
- Ascended Extra: One of five WGP racers to have a major role in the Fast as Lightning game.
- Dashing Hispanic: A Hispanic race car.
- Punny Name: His name references the El Camino produced by Chevrolet.
Carla Veloso
Voiced by: Jossara Jinaro
Peugeot 908
- Ascended Extra: She appears in the video game as one of the playable characters. She is also one of five WGP racers to have a major role in the Fast as Lightning game. She also hosts the Carnival Race for the Transcontinental Race of Champions.
- The Smurfette Principle: Carla is the only female competitor in the World Grand Prix.
Shu Todoroki
Voiced by: Erik Passoja
Dome S102
- Ascended Extra: One of five WGP racers to have a major role in the Fast as Lightning game. He was also the host of the Neon Race for the Transcontinental Race of Champions and in the book of the same name.
- Japanese Ranguage: Occasionally slips into it in the video game, i.e. "Mission comprete".
Rip Clutchgoneski
Voiced by: N/A
- Advertised Extra: Barely even that. Clutchgoneski was the last WGP racer to have his diecast revealed, and he didn’t even appear in the video game.
- The Artifact: His name was meant to allude to the fact that he would have been killed off by the lemons’ radiation camera in early drafts of the movie. Rip alludes to Rest In Peace (R.I.P.), and Clutchgoneski alludes to "Clutch gone to the sky". Since he ends up surviving his crashes in the finalized movie, now his name is basically a leftover of an early version.
- The Baby of the Bunch: Supplementary materials reveal that Rip is a talented rookie who was selected for the World Grand Prix. All of the other racers already have years of experience on the track, which makes Rip fit into this trope. He even looks a bit baby-faced which helps paint him as the youngest of the racers. His only lines in the franchise also show him unwilling to take risks that experienced racers like Lightning are eager to.
- Ruritania: His homeland is the “Republic of New Rearendia”.
- The Voiceless: The only known WGP racer who has no known voice actor; however, he did speak in the books.
Around the world
Cars in Tokyo
- Acrofatic: Kingpin Nobunaga, Pinion Tanaka, and Kimura Kaizo the sumo vans.
- The Cameo: Many of the characters from Tokyo Mater return, including Kabuto.
- Geisha: Okuni and Shigeko from the Kabuki theatre. The two of them plus another, named Tamiko, appear at the party as well.
- Idol Singer: News reporter Chuki moonlights as the lead vocalist of the popular band "Grid Lock".
- Old Master: The Zen Master.
Crabby
Voiced by: Sig Hansen
- Cool Boat: He is one.
- Ink-Suit Actor: He's modeled after Sig Hansen's own boat, FV Northwestern.
- Small Role, Big Impact: He is in the movie for only a minute, but he brings Finn close enough to the oil rigs where the lemons are organizing their nefarious plans.
Celine Dephare
Voiced by: Unknown
- All There in the Manual: Her name is revealed in the toyline.
- Eyes Do Not Belong There: Played for laughs. Her eyes are located in her headlights instead of her windshield.
- Non-Standard Character Design: Celine stands out among the other car characters in having headlights for eyes. That said, she resembles a toy Chevron car.
- Spear Carrier: Only appears for a brief gag and never shows up again.
Tomber
Voiced by: Michel Michelis
Reliant Regal
- Friend in the Black Market: He owes Finn his freedom, and thus lends the agent his help when needed.
- The Informant: He is a shady car who is actually good friends with Finn and provides him with information regarding the engine in the photo.
- Meaningful Name: His name in French means "to tumble".
Mama and Uncle Topolino
Voiced by: Vanessa Redgrave (Mama Topolino) & Franco Nero (Uncle Topolino)
- Chaste Toons: To Luigi.
- Cool Old Guy: Uncle Topolino.
- Named After Somebody Famous: In Italy, the Topolinos share their name with Mickey Mouse. A downplayed example, as "Topolino" is also what Fiat 500s are commonly referred to.
The Queen and Prince Wheeliam
Voiced by: Vanessa Redgrave (The Queen)
Basis: Rolls-Royce Phantom IV & Bentley Continental GT
The vehicle queen of the United Kingdom and her Crown Prince grandson.
- No Celebrities Were Harmed: They are based on The British Royal Family.
Other racers (in international releases)
Tropes applying to all of them
- Expy Coexistence: Instead of outright replacing Jeff Corvette, they simply take his place in two of his scenes, and are even seen competing against him in spin-off material.
Frosty
Voiced by: Mark Winterbottom
- Ascended Extra: Has a bigger role in the Transcontinental Race of Champions line, most notable in the Neon Racers book when he races with Max, Rip, and Nigel.
- Ink-Suit Actor: He looks just like Mark Winterbottom. He even goes by Mark's nickname.
Fernando Alonso
Vitaly Petrov
Voiced by: Vitaly Petrov
- Ascended Extra: Has a bigger role in the Neon Racers story, joining Lightning's team along with Shu, Lewis and Carla, as they sign the climbers' book. He also hosts the Ice Race of the Transcontinental Race of Champions.
- The Cameo: He actually makes a cameo appearance on a Russian postcard during the credits. With this to consider, he is the only international racer to appear in all versions of Cars 2.
- Ink-Suit Actor: He looks just like his actor.
Flash
Memo Rojas Jr
