Cars were invented in the early 1900s and the vast majority of human existence was in a world without cars. There cannot be an innate preference for cars, which were a very recent invention.

Toy cars (tiny wheeled carts) date back at least 5000 years, but tools/technology date to the dawn of humanity.

The spinning wheel (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spinning_wheel), which creates yarn from threads, existed longer than cars. I doubt you would argue that boys would have a preference for playing with toy versions these wheeled tools, given that women in various Western and Eastern cultures were the main users of these tools.

so you're agreeing with me that any preference seen is probably from exposure and not innate like the studies claim?