The Office actually dr*wned the car for his biggest stunt with Steve Carell and Rainn Wilson

Luckily, Angela Kinsey and Jenna Fischer cover this in the aforementioned Episode “Office Ladies”. Fisher, recalling her conversation with Carell again, said that for the scene, a real car drove into the lake and he and Rainn Wilson were in the front, with the operator in the back seat. That is, the car did not have an engine. Both that and the gas tank were removed for safety, and the car was pulled into the lake with a specially designed drilling rig. So while it was technically a real machine, it didn’t actually function.

Fischer also contacted the cinematographer who filmed the scene, Randall Einhorn, who has an impressive resume as a television director, including for shows such as Fargo, Parks and Recreation, Abbott Elementary, and many others ( through IMDb). However, the most important thing here is that Einhorn worked as a cinematographer on The Revenant for two years. This meant he knew exactly what kind of camera would be needed to get the best shot of Michael and Dwight falling into the lake from the car.

Fisher also recalled that when she called him for details, Einhorn, ironically, was just getting out of the lake on a winter trip to Idaho; Kinsey also remembered that he was a bit of an adventurer. In any case, it was him in the back of the real, unpowered car watching Michael toss it straight into the water, and Dwight panicked. After all, it was the biggest stunt The Office had pulled off to that point.