I remember using a crappy joystick in the DOS racing game Screamer. The acceleration/steering was mapped to the unit square, but my joystick had a circular hole in the base, limiting movement. It made it impossible to turn around, since you couldn't accelerate and give max steering at the same time.
I fixed the joystick with a metal file.
https://youtu.be/Ka56PLmXCqI?t=28