you youngster,
The 1st time I played an 8 track in the car!!!!!!!!!!
8 track was a revolution, the 1st time our music was so easily transported, listened to so easily anywhere, like you say, blasting down the highway!
The player's heads got misaligned, the tape's broke, stretched,
they were actually to be used for advertising at radio stations, just enough tape inside for that ad campaign (thus lighter, easier to move the tape), use until that ad campaign was over, in the trash can!
cassettes were for dictation, not music, single track, each way, then 2 track forward, then 4 track. It was improvements in the physical parts, cassette innards, player's innards, tape formulations, dolby ... that made them successful for music, of course the same portability as 8 tracks, but far more reliable and very easy to made duplicates or mix your own tracks.
That is when Programmable Turntables were introduced, scan the lp, find the blank spots between the tracks, you pick the tracks, in the order you want, record only those on your cassette.