And my personal corollary: R/C cars when I was a kid. I learned so many useful things from building, driving, breaking, and fixing them!

DC electronics, motors, suspension tuning and theory, PWM, basic mechanical “instincts”, soldering, how transmissions work (some models had even fluid-filled torque converters on them) differential gearing (and some had limited slip!) and even regenerative braking.

Years later I’d constantly be surprised how all of these things worked almost the same way in real cars.