Alright something is definitely up. I tried playing the game again and i got past the first race but on the first spy mission, not long after it started, it crashed again. this is going to spawn some sort of "Cars 2 3DS" iceberg, isn't it?
I had an original cartridge of cars 2 lying around and as far as i know, it hasn't crashed on me on original hardware (which i'm a little surprised since it has that 'took an hour to make and playtest' feel)