A high horsepower car can be driven normally, in traffic, but the driver has to keep their foot out of it.Nobody is trained to handle that much horsepower-unless you have gone to one of the racing schools. You are correct-driven normally it's like any other car-but usually to drive like grandma on the way to the grocery store is not the intention of the purchaser. It's not a matter of "thinking" but "training".
My wife has a 500+ HP engine with loads of torque in a 2 seat coupe/roadster. It's a sub 4 second 0-60 car. 1/4 mile in about 12.0.
She avoids being stupid* and it remains safe.
So, I would argue that thinking comes first. Mostly, the thinking is: "should I floor it here"? "should I race this clown next to me?" "should I be going this fast?" and if you're able to answer "NO" - then your thinking is correct.
When we first got the car, we went to a lonely, straight road, with no cars in sight, and I had her floor it from a stop. Really impressive car. Now she knows what it can do, she just choses not to do that at the wrong time. That's thinking.
If she wanted to wring all the performance out of it, on a track, you bet, serious training required. Lots of potential learning and skill development there.
*Stupid comes in many forms. Full throttle acceleration with a fast car on the street. Going faster than traffic flow in traffic. Weaving in and out of traffic. Full throttle power slides on public streets. Racing on public streets. Don't do those dumb things and the car is safe, regardless of maximum horsepower.