Almost everywhere in the world, cars are a means to get around and occasionally carry things. But in the US, cars are status symbols first and transportation second. We're conditioned to buy as much car as we can afford via advertising, cultural pressure, and low-interest loans. Or even to buy cars when we don't actually need them. (If you live in a city with a subway, you don't actually need a car, you just want one. Your family probably does not need a car for every member of the household. Etc.)
Our mass transit is in a shambles because of the insanity of car culture. Except for a few HCOL cities, mass transit is essentially considered to be a service for the poor.
Gas prices in the US are embarrassingly low. They are subsidized by the government in various often invisible forms, at the behest of the oil and auto industries. The auto industries have an interest in keeping gas prices low because it means they can convince buys to pony up for ever-increasing vehicle sizes. The "true" price of gas nowadays is somewhere north of $7-8 a gallon and that's not including the inevitable cost of cleaning up the atmosphere, whenever we decide to get serious about that.
Where I grew up in the 80's and 90's, you were either a Chevy or a Ford person. Weirdest form of brand loyalty ever. I didn't even know foreign brands sold cars here until after I graduated high school and started seeing more of the country. I never moved back but I visit every few years and there are still no foreign dealerships outside of the major cities.
I really want to like electric cars (and trucks, sure) but I don't like that you don't really "own" them. I don't know of any that you can buy that don't require signing up with the manufacturer and having to install an app on your phone, or have the car permanently connected to the cloud via mobile network, just to drive and charge the damn thing.