You sound like a couple of my family members.
I remind them that cars are less safe than airplanes, statistically.
Even though planes are safer in the long run, I’ve never enjoyed flying. Went overseas for the first time in 2006, and went back over the next year. Planes are great if you want to get someplace fast. We never had a car in our family. My Dad worked on the NY Central Railroad, and our family could ride for free. I didn’t get my driver’s license until I was about 28. Never had a new car until I was 40. I took a lot of driving vacations in my younger days as I was into the Civil War, and visited as many battlefields I could get to, and traveled to various places, including Washington to do research at the Archives. My present car I bought new in 2005. Figured it was the last car I’d ever own, and hoped it would last until I died. I don’t take it out of state as I wouldn’t want it to break down and have it worked on by someone I don’t know. My oldest son lives in Troy, NY, less than two hours from me. My youngest son lives in Indiana, about 14-16 hours from me. I only see him about once a year, and I usually rent a car to drive there. I tried driving straight through once, but felt like I’d been put through a wringer, so now I stop overnight on the way out, and on the way back home. My kids, my brother’s widow and their family, plus a few cousins on my father’s side are all the family I have left, so any driving I do nowadays is to visit them occasionally, grocery shopping once or twice a week, and oh, of course doctor visits. Can’t forget them.