Not too long ago some friends of mine asked me to babysit their kids (3 & 5 years old) by playing Candyland for a few minutes. The kids impromptu made up various rules about skipping turns, going in reverse, teleporting, yadda yadda, based on the board artwork around the Candyland track. It was basically playing Calvinball[1] with the Candyland board as a backdrop.
I suspect that most children, after playing it once and realizing it contains 0% game, just go ahead and say to themselves, "no problem here," and fueled by the fabulous aesthetics, fantasize their own personal Candyland game in their own heads.