One rule of photography is to never center your focal point, it's too obvious. The good thing about pic one is the car is the focal point, but inadvertaly you caught something else that is really cool. The second pic you just took a lot of the ground which isn't very interesting. The flash on the ground closed the shutter on your camera sooner thus removing the effect from the sky.

If your shooting with a point and shoot, focus on the sky first by holding the button down partially then bring the car into the shot and don't release your focus point. Then snap the pic when the car is in the frame. Point and shoot digital camera will set the aperture and shutter speed depending on what it "sees" during the partial press. You hold it then lower the car into the view. You will get the car plus that beautiful nighttime background.