No, because that's profoundly misleading. The car is propelled by the wheels. Those may be moved by a motor directly or indirectly, but the car is not moved for

No, because that's profoundly misleading. The car is propelled by the wheels. Those may be moved by a motor directly or indirectly, but the car is not moved forward by the explosion of gas directly, there needs to be a transformation of the energy into circular motion. There are many many different types of motor, so the specifics may be detailed. But for a naive explanation, you could just say "fire". I wonder how difficult it is to build wooden axis and hinges that overcome the force of friction in old carts.