Your car has different gear ratios.
As an example, first gear might have a ratio of 3.1:1, which means for every 3.1 turns of the engine, you get 1 turn of the driveshaft. Second Gear will have a gear ratio around 1.9, so for every 1.9 turns of the engine, you get 1 turn of the drive shaft. Eventually you can get to something like 0.8:1 in 5th gear, where for every 0.8 turns of the engine, you get 1 turn of the driveshaft.
If you then look at what’s going to happen, if you hit 5,000 RPM in 1st gear, you need to keep a constant number of turns of the driveshaft as you gear up. Since that means you’ve got ~1600 RPM on the driveshaft, in second gear that needs ~3000 RPM, so (assuming an automatic transmission), your car will automatically lower the engine speed to match and then second gear goes in.
One major difference compared to a bike is that, if a cars wheels spins, they are directly connected to and will spin the engine. With a bike, the tires do not have the same effect, so the pedals don’t get turned by the tires.
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