Mshugna, I suspect you’re right. But I also have to comment that while the original post was answered repeatedly, the OP’s follow up question of what the mechnical reasoning is has yet to be fully answered. So I’ll try.
As matter is compressed it generates heat. That includes the fuel mix that goes into the cylinders. Higher performance engines use higher compression in the cylinders (either via higher mechanical ratios or additional boost, such as a turbocharger) to attain more power. The heat from the added compression when added to the residual heat in the cylinder from the prior combustion can create a condition wherein either the fuel self-ignites (knocking) or a second ignition point happens by itself when the initial combustion process begins creating a second wavefront that hits the sparkplug-induced wavefront causing that pinging sound. Both are forms of heat-induced preignition and both can destroy an engine.
Higher octane fuels are resistant to this unintentional detonation. They detonate less readily.
Economy cars don’t generally suffer from this because they don’t use high compression ratios or boost pressures.