Motorama (1991) on Netflix

Plot summary

Gus is ten, and after listening to his parents argue about money and another mouth to feed, he empties his piggy bank and drives off in a stolen 1965 Mustang. The Motorama game is his plan: collect the scratch-off cards sold only at participating gas stations and spell out the word for the grand prize. At a station, the attendant Phil cannot find the cards Gus has earned, so Gus takes a box of them from a back room and tells a policeman, Jerry, that the car belongs to his father. In a motel room he studies the rules, scratches out a first letter, and starts driving from station to station for more. A mechanic named Andy warns him that nobody plays Motorama any longer because winning is impossible.