The traditional 車 is a bird's-eye picture of an ancient chariot: the box in the middle is the carriage, the vertical line the axle, and the horizontal strokes the wheels. Simplified 车 keeps the frame with quick strokes — a cart you could sketch in four moves.
车 rolls through daily life: 火车 (fire-cart — a train!), 开车 (drive a car, with 开 you learned), 上车/下车 (get on / get off, with 上 and 下). China's love of trains made 火车 one of the first words learners meet, and the high-speed 高铁 network is the pride of modern 车 culture. In chess (象棋), the chariot 车 (pronounced jū there) is the most powerful piece — a 3,000-year-old vehicle still winning battles.
A cart seen from above: axle down the middle, wheels at top and bottom.
In Chinese chess the same character 车 is read jū and is the strongest piece on the board — the chariot.