I can answer this. Kavinsky himself provided the backstory in this interview some years ago; I made use of this canon setting while writing Swansong, so I had this section translated in my notes some time ago. It’s all one paragraph in the original, but I’ll space it out for better legibility:
Outrun, c'est l'histoire d'un ado de 18 ans dans une banlieue de Los Angeles. Le genre de lotissement où réside Elliott le gamin dans E.T. Il passe la majeure partie de son temps sur son Commodore 64 à conduire une Ferrari Testarossa dans Outrun, le jeu vidéo de bagnoles. Au collège, il joue au Foot US. Il y a deux trois caïds de l'équipe qui lui refusent le droit de porter le blouson teddy officiel car ils considèrent que son rôle est celui d'un porteur d'eau. Sa copine est l'une des cheerleaders. A côté des études, il a un petit boulot de valet. Le week-end, il gare les voitures pour un hôtel. Un jour, on lui balance les clés de la fameuse Testarossa. Au lieu de prendre la direction du parking, il décide d'aller faire un tour avec. Il veut passer prendre sa copine, mais celle-ci refuse de monter. Elle a peur qu'il perde son boulot. Vexé, il part seul sur la route pour tester la bête. Soudain, un orage s'abat. Un éclair foudroie la voiture qui termine dans le décor. Cut. De nos jours, un mec traîne sur les routes. C'est le Dead Cruiser.
(Outrun is the story of an 18-year old dude living in a Los Angeles suburb. The kind of place where Elliott, the kid from E.T., lives. The dude spends most of his time on his Commodore 64 playing Outrun, the car game, driving the Ferarri Testarossa in it. He plays American football in college; two, three guys on the team refuse him the right to wear the official varsity jacket, because they just consider him the water carrier. His girlfriend is one of the cheerleaders.
Besides studying, he has a part-time job as a valet: he parks cars at a hotel at weekends. One day, he has the keys of the famous Testarossa thrown at him - and rather than take it to park, he decides to go joyriding with it. He wants to take his girlfriend along, but she refuses to go with him, she’s nervous he’ll lose his job. Vexed, he goes by himself and hits the road to test the beast.
Suddenly, a thunderstorm strikes. A lightning bolt hits the car, which forces it off the road. Cut. And nowadays - a guy hangs out along the roads.
The thing that kills me about this backstory was that he was on awkward terms with his girlfriend immediately before he died: his last interaction with her was essentially an argument, he wasn’t in a good mood when he set out, and her warnings were justified because he literally died for that car. And when he finally makes it back to her, she’s moved on with her life, and he has nobody but himself to blame for his state. That regret is what colours ‘Nightcall’. From the general mood of Outrun and the music videos, we can assume Kavinsky had some kind of regret over his girlfriend, but this is the interview where he clarified what exactly they were, and it’s very… well. Ouch. The absence of closure hits exceptionally hard with that detail.
But anyway. Kavinsky was definitely in the car, and he was definitely driving. Nobody hit him. This is not necessarily detrimental to the ‘ghost car’ theory, because whether that Testarossa is sentient is a different issue; it can be argued the Testarossa invoked that thunderstorm, or that it’s some kind of cursed artifact that ties it and its driver together. I personally read Kavinsky’s backstory as an ordinary boy and an ordinary car thrown into the extraordinary - I consider it a liminal disaster which struck 100% without warning or intention, because that way, Kavinsky choosing to act in certain ways after his death has deeper existential significance - but the ‘ghost car’ theory can still stand. It’s just that nobody but Kavinsky and the Testarossa were involved.
There’s also the legal problem the Testarossa was never his car but I don’t get the impression that was ever his concern 😂😂😂
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