Nothing much in my life scares me but I'm only 66 and don't drive. I gave that up in my late 40s because i never liked driving, having learned to drive quite late in life (38), and found it always put my blood pressure up dangerously high. My husband, age 68, always loved driving but not any more. He feels his reactions are slower and his concentration not as good as it should be. The other day I had to stop him unknowingly driving through a red light. So I feel driving fears are probably justified in some cases.
I joined a U3A writers' group and ended up getting bamboozled into a performance group too. I have written scripts and performed on stage and loved it, even though I thought of myself as shy. We got good reviews from the U3A audiences, even though I thought we might have been a bit too far on the naughty side. Then I realised the others had been children of the post war years and the swinging 60s like me.
I do agree it is easy to feel anxious, my husband, a really tough guy and ex special forces man, suffers from anxiety related conditions. I never did anything scarier than serious cycling and a bit of basic rock climbing: I led a safe life, but nowadays I am not scared of anything. Not that there's anything scary in my life.
There seems to be no rhyme or reason to feelings of fear in old age. Some have it, some don't. Or it could just be the difference between being an optimist or a pessimist.
The difference between my husband and me, is that I'm gregarious and like people - I always see the best in them. He's a bit of a misanthropist, a pessimist, and always sees the worse in everything.