Very cool indeed!
The skidpad training forms part of every norwegian's basic drivers license's mandatory training. They take us out on an iced-over pad (you have to complete your training in winter if you took your course in summer).
There they do exactly what you talk about. They let you drive around an oval, faster and faster until your back slides out - then teach you how to correct.
They also let you perform emergency braking tests at various speeds on the ice to see how your braking distance DRAMATICALLY increases by "just going a few kms over the speed limit".
We also did oversteer/understeer scenarious and my favourite was where they have this dolly system with foam-rubber cutouts of people that they control. So you drive down a strip and the instructor "runs" them into the road and you have to try and dodge them - no damage if it hits the car, just a bruised ego.
One of the more "sobering" experiments is where they strap you to a car seat on a slide which hard-stops when you reach 10km/h. It looks like nothing, but you get quite a bump from it. I even bit open my cheek during my turn.
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