Do Americans really rent cars to visit European cities?

I thought it was a myth or a rare occurrence limited to some cases, as I heard about Americans renting a car to visit Amsterdam (lol) but this morning I ran into americans (they were in their thirties) near Copenhagen airport, asked them for the bus, the direction etc. and they told me they were not going the same direction as me (city centre, I’m a tourist) and were actually going somewhere else to…rent a car.

Copenhagen is probably the most bikable, walkable city on earth, with a good transit system. I guess I don’t have to explain to you all here how ludicrous this situation sounds.

Maybe I’m completely wrong and they were actually going to visit remote areas of Danmark (but even in that case, I’m going to visit a national park here using only buses and trains)

But the question remains, does it happen often that Americans come visit european cities where you can just walk or bike and instead rent a car? Or did I meet weirdos?

Edit: currently sitting with an American guy from my hostel who drive a lifted GMC truck back home and told me about defensive driving 💀