What's the Point of Mousetrap Car Projects?????

Please, please, please... People born & raised in this country, can you please enlighten me? 

Is this mousetrap car thing kind of a "cultural tradition" (like pinewood derby races)? A "rite of passage-type" required project of middle school? 

Why yet another LAME project that requires help and significant time from parents? One that a physics teacher from another country agrees it's lame and had never even heard of?

Sigh...

Because when your almost-a-teen (39 days to go) ADD kid (who doesn't want to be officially diagnosed) with two overworked parents forgets to even show them the rubric & instructions and does the project the night before (with dad who needed to prepare his classes), it's a recipe for disaster.

But how do you make your kid make a project that you believe is really lame? Why do these projects exist in he first place? 

I know homeschooling and unschooling would be/are the best, but we can't do it, so we have to put up with this!! For SEVEN more years because I don't know if it will be much better in high school... Sigh. (At least the high school they'll be going to).

Sorry for the rant, we're definitely getting fed up with 7th grade!!! :-(