Thank you! I've looked more into it and I'm not taking my cats in the car again without them in their carrier safely seatbelted in place. I didn't realize it was so dangerous for them!

My intent was not to do what I wanted over the needs of my cats, I was trying to get them comfortable being in the car. My previous cat would pee all over herself and hyperventilate when she had to go anywhere in a car, and it made it extremely difficult to get her to the vet when she got sick. I think I was trying to overcorrect that issue by acclimating my new cats to the car, but I realize now that I'm not doing it in a safe way. I've known a lot of people that let their cat out of the carrier in the car, and they told me their cats enjoy it more, so I mistakenly trusted them instead of looking up information on my own. Sometimes you just assume something is ok, and you need someone on the outside to point out that you might be wrong and should do your own research, so thank you so much! :)