Cars 2 - PCGamingWiki PCGW (2024)

Cars 2
Developers

	Avalanche Software
macOS(OSX)	TransGaming Inc.
Publishers
	Disney Interactive Studios
Russia	Noviy Disk^[1]
Engines
	Octane (Avalanche Software)
Release dates
Windows	June 21, 2011
macOS(OSX)	June 21, 2011
Reception
Metacritic	65
Taxonomy
Monetization	One-time game purchase
Genres	Racing
Series	Cars

Cars
Subseries of Pixar
Cars	2006
Cars: Radiator Springs Adventures	2006
Cars Mater-National Championship	2007
The World of Cars Online	2008
Cars Toon: Mater's Tall Tales	2010
Cars 2	2011
Disney Planes	2013
Cars: Fast as Lightning	2014

1 Availability
2 Essential improvements
- 2.1 Skip intro videos
- 2.2 Arcade models
3 Game data
- 3.1 Configuration file(s) location
- 3.2 Save game data location
- 3.3 Save game cloud syncing
4 Video
5 Input
- 5.1 Xbox 360 button prompts
6 Audio
- 6.1 Localizations
7 Network
- 7.1 Multiplayer types
8 Issues fixed
- 8.1 Looping music and game crashes
- 8.2 Widescreen resolution
9 Other information
- 9.1 API
- 9.2 Middleware
10 System requirements
11 Notes
12 References

Key points

Based on the graphically inferior Wii release rather than the 360/PS3 versions. Despite this, Steam page falsely advertises the game with screenshots from said versions.^[2]

DLC from the 360/PS3 was never released.

General information

World of Cars Wiki

Steam Community Discussions

Availability

Source	DRM	Notes	Keys	OS
Retail		SecuROM8 DRM.
GamersGate
Steam
Amazon.com (unavailable)		SecuROM8 and SecuROM PA DRM.
Amazon.com (unavailable)

Essential improvements

Skip intro videos

Delete or rename video files

Delete or rename video files
Go to `<path-to-game>\data_dxw\FMV\`. Delete or rename the following files: avlogo.bikCopyright.bikDIS.bikgslogo.bikOpening.bikPixar_Logo.bik

Go to <path-to-game>\data_dxw\FMV\.
Delete or rename the following files:

avlogo.bikCopyright.bikDIS.bikgslogo.bikOpening.bikPixar_Logo.bik

Arcade models

This mod replaces character models with ones from the arcade version of the game by Raw Thrills, which have richer detail compared to the default PC version models. Some cutscenes also get their animations restored with this mod, such as the one in Coastal Invasion mission.

Use the Arcade Model Pack mod^[3]
Download it here. Extract the `assets` folder into `<path-to-game>` and replace files when prompted to.

Game data

Configuration file(s) location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Disney Interactive Studios\Cars2
macOS (OS X)
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/301760/pfx/^{[Note 1]}

Save game data location

System	Location
Windows	%USERPROFILE%\Documents\Disney Interactive Studios\Cars2\storage
macOS (OS X)
Steam Play (Linux)	<Steam-folder>/steamapps/compatdata/301760/pfx/^{[Note 1]}

Save game cloud syncing

System	Native	Notes
OneDrive		Requires enabling backup of the Documents* folder in OneDrive on all computers.*
Steam Cloud

Video

Graphic settings

The game doesn't allow to change graphic settings individually and only has presets.

Graphics feature	State	Notes
Widescreen resolution		See Widescreen resolution if it won't go higher than 1152x854 for you.
Multi-monitor
Ultra-widescreen
4K Ultra HD		HUD becomes very small with higher resolutions.
Field of view (FOV)
Windowed		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Borderless fullscreen windowed		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anisotropic filtering (AF)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Anti-aliasing (AA)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
Vertical sync (Vsync)		See the glossary page for potential workarounds.
60 FPS and 120+ FPS		Framerate uncapped on Low settings. Locked to 60fps on Medium or High graphics settings. Steering and drifting speed increase with framerate.

Input

Keyboard and mouse	State	Notes
Remapping
Mouse acceleration		Mouse is not used in the gameplay at all.
Mouse sensitivity
Mouse input in menus
Mouse Y-axis inversion
Controller
Controller support
Full controller support
Controller remapping		Only presets.
Controller sensitivity
Controller Y-axis inversion

Controller types

XInput-compatible controllers
Xbox button prompts		See Xbox 360 button prompts.
Impulse Trigger vibration

PlayStation controllers

Generic/other controllers
Button prompts

Additional information
Controller hotplugging
Haptic feedback
Digital movement supported
Simultaneous controller+KB/M

Xbox 360 button prompts

This mod replaces generic controller prompts with Xbox prompts ported from the Xbox 360 version of the game.

Included with the Arcade Model Pack mod.

Use the Arcade Model Pack mod^[3]
Download it here. Go to `Optional Files/Xbox 360 Controller Icons` folder in the zip file. Extract either `Default` or `85x85 Icons` folders' content into `<path-to-game>` and replace files when prompted to.

Audio

Audio settings

Audio feature	State	Notes
Separate volume controls		Music, Effects, Voice
Surround sound
Subtitles		There is no option to turn them off.
Closed captions
Mute on focus lost
Royalty free audio

Localizations

Language	UI	Audio	Sub	Notes
English
Czech
Dutch
French
German
Italian
Polish
Brazilian Portuguese
Russian
Spanish
Turkish				Ported from the Wii version. Download.

Network

Multiplayer types

Type	Players	Notes
Local play	2	Versus Arena and Disruptor modes are multiplayer-only.
LAN play
Online play

Issues fixed

Looping music and game crashes

During an event, the music may loop, which ends up crashing the game when leaving the event. This is because of a threading issue with the CPU.

Let the game use only one CPU core^[4]
When the game has opened, go to Task Manager. Go to the details tab. Right click on the game in the list (called Game-Cars.exe) and then click on "Set affinity". Make sure only CPU 0 is selected, then click OK. Return to the game and have fun. Do this every time you run the game, because all cores are selected by default the next time the game launches.

Let the game use only one CPU core^[4]

When the game has opened, go to Task Manager.
Go to the details tab.
Right click on the game in the list (called Game-Cars.exe) and then click on "Set affinity".
Make sure only CPU 0 is selected, then click OK.
Return to the game and have fun.

Do this every time you run the game, because all cores are selected by default the next time the game launches.

Widescreen resolution

For some reason, the game's resolution won't go any higher than 1152x854 on some computers.

Widescreen fix
Open your game files. Delete your `specs.cfg`. Go to `GameCars.exe`'s properties. Turn on the compatibility mode and set it to Windows 7. Done!

Other information

API

Executable	32-bit	64-bit	Notes
Windows
macOS (OS X)

Middleware

	Middleware	Notes
Cutscenes	Bink

System requirements

Windows
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	XP SP3	7
Processor (CPU)	Intel Pentium 4 3.0 GHz AMD Athlon 64 3500+	Intel Core 2 Duo 2.6 GHz AMD Athlon X2 6000+
System memory (RAM)	2 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	3 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce 6600 ATI Radeon X800 256 MB of VRAM DirectX 9.0c compatible Shader model 3 support	Nvidia GeForce 7900 ATI Radeon X1900

macOS (OS X)
	Minimum	Recommended
Operating system (OS)	Snow Leopard 10.6.7
Processor (CPU)	Intel Core Duo	Intel Core i series
System memory (RAM)	2 GB	4 GB
Hard disk drive (HDD)	3 GB
Video card (GPU)	Nvidia GeForce 7300 GT ATI Radeon X1600 Intel HD 3000 128 MB of VRAM	Nvidia GeForce x6xx series ATI Radeon HD 2600 256 MB of VRAM

Intel GMA 950 and x3100 GPUs are not supported on OS X.

This game will not run on PowerPC (G3/G4/G5) based Mac systems (Power Mac).

Notes

↑ ^1.0 ^1.1 File/folder structure within this directory reflects the path(s) listed for Windows and/or Steam game data (use Wine regedit to access Windows registry paths). Games with Steam Cloud support may store data in ~/.steam/steam/userdata/<user-id>/301760/ in addition to or instead of this directory. The app ID (301760) may differ in some cases. Treat backslashes as forward slashes. See the glossary page for details.

References

↑ Official page (Russian) - last accessed on 2023-02-19
↑ Steam page - last accessed on 2023-07-27
↑ ^3.0 ^3.1 [1] - last accessed on 2023-07-15
↑ Video Game (Cars 2) Black Screen Crashing (AMD 6670) - Post #12 - last accessed on 2021-07-02