>>I do believe that you have the option to turn that feature off.<<
Sort of.
If your phone is on, it is constantly searching the closest tower. When the tower receives a ping, it logs it. It knows the time, the IMSI (your phones “fingerprint”), your phone number, etc. And the information is saved - for how long I don’t know.
If you drive from Seattle to Chicago and your phone is on the whole time, there is a record of where you (your phone, that is) were, when, on the entire route.
And because this information is historical, law enforcement can literally go back in time. Again, how far I don’t know, but I suspect it is at least 6 months.
Could you turn off the cell access on a phone, and just use wifi?