The origin of the car is in the US, although it was predominantly sold in Europe from 1968 to 2002. The picture above shows the car, and as you can see, it's license plate is from a European country. The car was developed in the USA, but was first unveiled in Brussel Motor's Show in Britain in the year 1968.

The car is valuable to us as it's different models served multiple purposes. It show's the want of people of the time. For example, the car's small size made it popular, from this we can assume that cars were becoming increasingly popular and traffic was increasing in Europe. This shows the recovery from war and increase in consumer goods. Now, the car was also used for racing, this shows how there was a development of racing as a professional thing. FYI, the biggest success for this car was in the World Cup Rally in 1970, in which driver Hannu Mikkola won with his Ford Escort Mark I.
As this car served a useful purpose in it's time, the Ford Escort still has some limitations to what it can tell us about it. The car does not at all express the immense amount of women right movements, gay rights, and civil right movements. Probably biggest of all, it doesn't at all portray what was happening in the Cold War, specifically, the Cuban Missile Crisis.

Sources:
Munnah Bhai Bollywood Movie
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Escort_(Europe)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_Escort_(North_America)