Those battery-powered toy cars have been around longer than you think. But they were too expensive for any except the richest kids to own. Full-size electric vehicles aren't new, either. The guy who delivered the milk when I was a kid had one -- and it was already an antique back then!
What we did have were what we called "go karts," which were contraptions that we built with a couple of two-by-fours, wooden milk crates for the seats, and wheels that we appropriated from discarded baby carriages. They looked a lot like these ones:
The reasons we made our own were that we had no money, but we did have freedom. There were 1.2 bazillion of these karts rolling up and down the streets and sidewalks of Brooklyn at any given time, and no one so much as shrugged. It was something that kids did. We learned from it.
When a kart was built right, it really moved. It could develop quite a bit of speed by the time it got to the downhill end of the street, which would lead to another educational experience: It's really,
really hard to stop a rolling go-kart with two kids on it when the go-kart has no brakes. That was how we learned about momentum. That lesson would immediately be followed by one in how quickly cobble stones can wear out sneaker soles when they're used in a desperate attempt to prevent your brake-less go kart from soaring into an intersection full of traffic.
Your generation has your tech and I'm glad you make the best use of it. But in all seriousness, I think my generation had a lot more fun.
Rich
